Drilling holes in paper
The ultimate hole punch on a budget.
I had about 1000 holes to punch for a kids church project and I didn’t want to spend all day punching holes only to align them again to put rubber bands in the holes. So I found a solution.
This only works if you have holes that don’t matter if they stray a little as you drill (unless you have a good drill press).
SUPPLIES NEEDED
1) A Hand held drill or drill press
2) Brad point bit wood drill bit. This bit has two spurs on the rim that cut a circle out before the wood in the center
is removed. However, If you do not have one you can use any drill bit, but it may not look as nice. I could not find a brad point when I drilled my papers and I still was successful, but about 10 pages had ugly holes.
3) Two (2) pieces of wood that can go along the length of the paper. Two paint stirrers from the hardware store work great and are the best price (free). As a last result glue several pieces of several pieces of cardboard from the recycling bin together and make a template.
4) Four (4) clamps that can fit around the entire paper stack.(I prefer to have at least 3 clamps around each hole as I drill and 1 that secures the paper to a table.
HOW IT IS DONE
(I found that thicker stacks produce less clean cuts at the bottom of the stack)
II. In one of the paint sticks make a template by drilling holes at the spacing you want. Drill the holes in from both sides to make sure that the stick is flush on both sides.
You do NOT want holes in the bottom paint stick.
III. Place your template on top of the paper and clamp it down. Put other clamps around the holes as necessary
I like to have three clamps around each hole so there is a good amount amount of support so the paper does not bend.
IV. Put a rubber band around the papers so they do not come unsorted after drilling!! Clamp the paper to a table so that it does not spin as you drill !!
V. Drill the holes.
After drilling the paper will be stuck together and may not come apart without pulling each piece apart, but you will have clean holes in your paper.
Background:
I went to the local copy shop to have some paper cut. It cost about $1.65 per cut and I gladly did this as I did not have a paper guillotine and had lots of paper to cut.
I also wanted to see if they were able to punch holes in the paper. It cost $.01 per piece of paper which may not seem like a lot except I had about 1000 pages that needed holes and tax is about another 10% so I brought the paper home and drilled the holes myself.