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Repro playfield swap - Drill bits?!?

kev a

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Jun 4, 2019
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Guernsey
Doing a bit of shopping ahead of my new CPR playfield arriving, planning to re drill holes for t-nuts, ball guides etc but having trouble finding a set of imperial drill bits.
Amazon, eBay etc have a few but nothing really comprehensive and from brands I have never heard of.

Any suggestions of UK based sites that have sets available, or if I do have to buy from the US any recommendations of brands to go for?
 
metric will do they don’t need to be that exact, for hammering in stuff like tnuts you want a tight hole anyway


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I have a follow up question, not about the tightness of holes, I have researched that online and your right, tight definitely seems to be the preferred option 👌

If metric will do, how small of an increment should I go for? 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 etc good enough?
 
yeah one of those sets that go from 1 or 1.5mm in approx 0.5mm increments up to a few mm



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I believe the holes are drilled before clear coat is applied, so clear gets into the holes and re drilling is recommended to avoid chipping when screwing parts down, also the parts that are dimpled need pilot holes.
 
Get a set in 0.1mm increments 1 to 6mm. Very useful to ensure you get a tight hole.
I got a set from eBay.
 
ok cool, how are they for drilling into clearcoat?
You have to be careful, as you can chip it. I used a larger bit and twisted it by hand to slightly countersink it first where a post would then cover it.
 
You have to be careful, as you can chip it. I used a larger bit and twisted it by hand to slightly countersink it first where a post would then cover it.
Thats a good idea starting by hand. Thinking about getting the 0.1 incriment twist style you mentioned and some brad points going up in 0.5 increments too, Can never have too many drill bits
 
All holes was perfect size when doing my ES swap no drilling that I can remember.
 
My two penneth, having never done a playfield... 😬

Take care with brad point bits as they will pull you down quickly into the wood, best off without that I would say.

Using those by hand though, will create a nice point, plus create a light cut/score ring around the diameter. Sometimes I use them and reverse them, just to get through paint on arcade cabs after spraying.

I get a fair amount of my tools from Axminster tools these days, good quality and if you go to their massive shop near Sittingbourne, there is a man there called Colin who actually knows everything!
 
Thats intresting, I do hope the holes are the right size and no drilling is required Ww does seem particularly tight on some of the ball guides from what I have read so far, but some of those restore threads are old and things may have improved in recent runs. In my limited experience the brad points do stay nice and central, perhaps start by hand to break through the clear then switch to give the twisted bits a little ridge to centre into.
 
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