Drill or NOT!

[nixquax]

What is best way to tell you if you should drill a repair or not? And does anyone here drill ALL repairs?

[mafsu]

I use my drill on all repairs. To clarify I use my drill to clean up the pit on bullseye and similar damage. On stars or other damage with legs I drill(as deep as the head on a #2 round bur) to open up the damage to allow the resin to flow into the legs. This is not absolutely necessary with every repair, but it does speed up the process dramatically.

[Sneck]

nixquax,

I use to drill every repair. People have great results drilling and not drilling. But let me make a case for NOT drilling.

I took the Delta Kits training course in Eugene, and there were lots of practice breaks for us to all work on. Up until then, I would have just drilled everything as I have done for years, but in class we were repairing several breaks long before the drill was introduced into training.

The fact is - that I was amazed that every break I repaired in class filled perfectly without the need for drilling. This included stars, bullseyes, and combination breaks - some of which I was certain would have needed to be drilled because the pit on some were tight or closed. But Delta's resin and the Delta training I received proved me wrong about the need for drilling everything.

My repairs look better too.

I agree with Delta's drilling policy,... drill ONLY when necessary. There are a lot of techs here that drill, and alot that don't. The ones that don't drill will tell you that their repairs turn out better than the ones they do drill. Not to mention that by not drilling (or drilling only when absolutely necessary), a single drill bit will last you a long time because you hardly ever use it. The battery on your dremel will probably last longer too.

FIELD EXPERIENCE
Another reason to avoid drilling if you don't have to... The other day I was standing on my step ladder repairing a break in the center of the windshield of a truck. It was a situation where I had to drill to top a crack. As I was standing on the ladder and leaning over the hood so I could drill exactly where I needed to, the ladder slipped (because it was on smooth concrete) and the ladder came out from under me. I lossed my balance and the dremel was still in my hand spinning as the palms of my hands came down on the windshield to stop my nose from hitting the glass.

The spinning drill ALMOST hit the glass several inches away from where I was working, and if it had, i'm certain it would have skipped across the windshield making lovely little stitches in the glass as the spinning bit skips across the glass.

Whew! That was close. The customer was standing right there watching me and boy did I feel like a clutz! But it never did actually hit the glass, but the point i'm trying to make is that it could have hit the glass and really screwed up the windshield.

So, my personal opinon about drilling is... Don't (unless you absolutely have to).

[screenman]

One of the reasons practise breaks do not need drilling is because the glass arund the pit is nice and clean a practise break will always fill easier than one you find in real life. I use the drill (some times just to clean the pit) on most breaks apart from the ones experience tells me I do not need to and this is the big point you will learn the more you do when or not to use the drill.

I do not find drilling lowers the cosmetic quality at all and is does speed up the repair.

[GlassStarz]

Dude throw the drill away or at least leave it at home one day so you have to go without it cold turky will kill the addiction. Use your scribe when it looks like a break needs the drill after a couple days put it back in you box you will find it only makes its way to the glass 1 in 10 breaks. Your repairs will look better some will look damn near invisible if you try. Let the injector do the work leave it on the glass dont hurry the process. The result will be better quality repairs. The Drill Is the Devil Avoid The Evil One!

[Repair1]

Drilling is a personal choice. It was such a long time ago when I was trained by delta I don

[dgarza]

At one time or another I was on both sides of the fence with this. Now what I do is drill when I think I’m going to need to and it works out just fine. I would say 50-70% of the time I do drill. How I decide is the age of the chip and what it looks like in the middle. For instance if I know a rock chip just happened within a reasonable amount of time and it looks quite fresh I will not drill and it ends up taking resin great. On the other hand if I know the chip is old and it looks mangled and or dirty I drill BUT I never drill to the laminate! The drilling I do cleans the top and just inside the break so there will be no problem with the resin going in. There is no need to drill to the laminate and to keep from doing this it just takes practice and feel for how deep you are. I only drilled that far by mistake 2 times in hundreds of repairs and that was in the beginning. I haven’t done it since. And since I’ve started relying on my gut instinct to drill or not to my repairs have gone quicker and looked better!

[belize]

Hi I'm very new to WS. I'm just practicing. I would like to know what is the best way to remove dust from old cracks? I tried to fix some of them but the cracks still shows because of the dust. Any help here?