Juvenile minds please keep it to yourselves, because I’m sure I wont be able to avoid any innuendos.
Have you ever drilled a hole in the wrong spot? No big deal in most cases; just start another hole where it’s actually supposed to go, and ignore the first one.
But what if you only need to move the hole over just a tiny bit? For almost all drill bits, it’s nearly impossible to get started on a small slice of material (metal, wood, etc). This is particularly true if you have more than 50% overlap between the incorrect and correct holes, and there’s nowhere for the point of your bit to land.
![](https://hood.party/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/IMG_20200405_212512-1024x768.jpg)
The simple solution
If there is nothing to guide your bit or hole saw on the material you are drilling, make your own guide.
![](https://hood.party/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/IMG_20200405_212539-1024x768.jpg)
While plumbing up our new bathroom, one of the drains for the sink got miscalculated with the type of elbow I was using. That, or I was real tired. Doesn’t matter; I ended up about an inch and a half too far away down the joist.
I could go buy yet another coupler and give myself issues when drilling up through the floor later, or I could fix the hole.
I made up this little template out of a scrap of 3/4″ stock, with enough meat on it to add a strong spring clamp out of the way.
![](https://hood.party/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/IMG_20200405_212745-1024x768.jpg)
I lined this up with the actual intended location for the pipe, which you can see below, would have been a real humdinger of a job without it.
![](https://hood.party/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/IMG_20200405_212759-1024x768.jpg)
The only thing left to do is drill the hole! I took the pilot bit out of this hole saw so it didn’t go off into the weeds (or break off).
![](https://hood.party/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/IMG_20200405_213359-1024x768.jpg)
Since this is a normal depth hole saw, it only cuts a little over 3/4″ before it bottoms out. This means that on a 2×8 joist like this one, I need to drill from both sides.
Easy enough to do, just put the template on the other side, in line with the hole you started. I left the drill bit in place while I aligned the template.
![](https://hood.party/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/IMG_20200405_213525-1024x768.jpg)
And wouldn’t you know it, once I put the hole in the proper place, the pipe fit perfectly!