Drill a hole through your lumber in one corner of your slot. If possible, use a drill bit that matches the width of your slot. For wide slots, you may want to start with a narrower bit and work your way up to avoid splitting the wood. Drill a second hole in the opposite corner of your slot. Use the same drill bits you did for the first hole. Cutting slots in wood is often known as mortising, and it can be done with a drill press. You'll need to set up a fence guard on your drill press table to make sure you move your board straight. Attach a Forstner bit to the drill and set up the proper plunge depth. Hello Gents, I have racked my mind on how to cut a square slot in the center of a 127mm x 127mm square piece of wood. I am trying to make some piggy banks for the holiday season and needed to cut this slot in the base so that the coins may be removed once the bank is reasonably full.
- You can use a router to put a slot in a piece of wood, but this takes skill and a router. Likewise a drill press, you can drill a series of holes in a line and cut out the excess with a chisel. But I'm guessing you don't have tools like a router and drill press otherwise you would not be asking this question.
- Make sure that you have securely fastened the wood in place so that no accidents or injuries occur. Bear in mind that your router’s blades are very sharp so make sure that nothing of value is in the blade’s path. Keeping in mid these instructions, you can use all types of wood routers.
I’m working on a new woodworking project that involved cutting through-slots for bolts in a couple of boards. The two boards will act as adjustable arms to hold a dowel handle for a garden cart.
I have cut shorter and narrower slots using a table-mounted router for a coin bank. These bolt slots were considerably longer and 1/4' wide so I was reluctant to use the same technique. I don’t have a plunge router – which would probably be the fastest and easiest way to do this.
Crowd-sourcing ideas
After checking a couple of woodworking forums for ideas – including one where someone trying this on a router table said the board 'shattered' (yikes!) – the general consensus seemed to be todrill out most of the material and clean up the slot later with a coping saw.
That sounded good (and safe) to me.
Since my slot was only 1/4' wide, I decided best approach was to use a 1/4' Forstner bit in a drill press to define the slot and remove most of the material, then clean up the slot with a file and sandpaper.
The shaft on the 1/4' bit was larger than the bit itself so I had to flip the board over to drill all the way through the 3/4' material. It’s probably a good idea to do this anyway to avoid tear-out unless you have a backer board underneath when you’re drilling.
What to do
Drilling
- Mark the centre points for each end of the slot in the blank and use a nail or awl to punch a small hole for orienting the bit.
- Set up the drill press with a Forstner bit the same size as the slot you’re cutting. You’ll need to attach a fence to the drill press table to maintain a straight line as you drill along the length.
- Place the blank against the fence and lower the bit. Adjust the fence and blank so the point of the Forstner bit enters the small punched hole. Clamp the fence in place, slide the blank to the mark at the other end of the slot and check that it’s aligned properly.
- Put a mark on the edge of the board that’s against the fence. Keep this edge against the fence when you flip the board over and drill the other side. This ensures the holes are in line even if your a hair off centre of the board.
- Turn on the drill press and drill the each end hole to define the slot – drilling about two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through the board. After that, just keep drilling holes and moving the work piece along the fence, overlapping holes just enough to keep point of the bit entering new wood. The slot will fill up with shavings which you should clear out if they get in the way.
- Once you’ve drilled the length of the slot, clean it out with a screw driver or something similar. Flip the board over (keeping the same edge against the fence).
- Repeat the process starting with the end holes. It doesn’t matter which direction you work in.
A COUPLE OF NOTES:
- If you’re making a wider slot, you may want to make an additional pass to remove the 'peaks' between holes.
- If you have a mortising chisel & bit you could swap that in once you’ve drilled the end holes.
Cleaning up the slot
- After the drilling is complete, clean out the shavings with an awl or small screwdriver.
- Clamp the work piece on edge to your bench and use a flat file to remove the high points left between the drilled holes being careful not to hit the rounded ends of the slots.
- Wrap a small piece of sandpaper around a drill bit (smaller than the slot) to sand the ends of the slot.
- After filing off most of the rough surfaces in the slot, wrap some sandpaper around the file and use it to finish cleaning up the slot.
If the slots were 1/2” wide or more, I probably would have used a jigsaw and straightedge to clean up the slots before sanding.
How To Make A Slot In Wood
RonB wrote:
> > Well, you could get all tooled up with a hollow chisel mortiser,
> > or all burly with a mallet and a mortising chisel,
> > but if you are more into getting the job done fisrly fast and
> > not buying fancy tools, a good sized router with a carbide bit
> > and a jig should get the job done
> This router approach is kinda what I had in mind when I asked my
> question. I suspected it was a rail-type of fence. You probably
> wouldn't have to go all the way through...just a couple of inches
> to allow the boards to be inserted and fastened.
I should have thought of that. No need to go all the way through the
posts, except that it means the slots are automatically aligned
properly.
I have a floor-standing drill press with a cross-slide vice, I also have
a relatively large router - but no router table. It would be more of a
hassle to set the router up to do these posts vs the drill press.
I suppose I could use a router bit on the drill press.
There are also drills that cut side-ways (don't know what they're called
exactly). If these are cedar posts, I suppose it's soft enough to try
one of those drills instead of a 1' diam x 2' deep router bit.
How To Make A Keyhole Slot In Wood
> > Pay attention to drainage or you'll have rotted boards in
> > short order.
How To Make Square Slot In Wood
I've had some good experience with using PL-Premium adhesive on exposed,
outdoor wood. Seems to hold up well under intermittent water exposure,
and winter/summer temperature swings. I'm thinking that using liberal
amounts of that glue to hold the boards in the slots (and sealing up the
slots in the process) might be the way to go. Yes?