EliminatingTear Out When Drilling Hundreds of Holes

When I started making cribbage boards, I noticed an annoying and common problem inherent in woodworking. I would get "tear-out" or tiny extra bits of wood being pulled out along with the wood from the hole I was drilling. This would result in unsightly little gaps next to a drilled hole. I tried various approaches to reduce or eliminate this problem. But as often happens in woodworking (and in life) , the solution to problem of "tear-out" was right in front of me. Literally.

In order to eliminate "tear out" when drilling hundreds of 1/8" holes in a piece of wood with a metal template on top of the piece of wood, you have to eliminate the gap between the metal template and the piece of wood. This gap causes tear out because there is extra space for the drill bit to pull wood fibres out. If there is no gap, then the drill bit goes in and comes out "clean".

At first I tried blue painters tape, which worked OK. I like the tape since it doesn't get in the way, but it doesn't get the template as flush as I'd like against the board. Then I tried various clamping schemes, none of which worked because they clamps made it clumbsy to drill. Next, I tried home-made hold-down clamps made from Ipe. These worked well, but still got in the way a little bit.

Then one day, I happened to notice a small box of #6 size wood screws laying in a corner. I layed the template on the board, I took the screw and screwed it though a hole in the template and into the wood. Right away I was impressed by how tightly it held the template against the board. I added a few more and found that 6 or 7 of the screws on 2-street drill template held the template tight and eliminated tear out completely. For the larger 3/16" hole templates, I use a standard #8 screw. After I finish drilling the holes, I "unscrew" the template and drill the holes where the screws had been.

The real test of this approach is on "California Ghost Towns Series - 2", where I'm using really crooked twisted wood (Catalina Cherry) and the holes are coming out clean.