Drilling Coins

Yes, the regular Dremel should work fine as long as you start with a small enough drill bit and enlarge the hole once or twice - you can get *good* bits from Rio Grande. At your local Home Depot, or local facsimile, you should also be able to find the set-up that converts your hand-held Dremel into a mini drill press. Works great ~ I've had mine for over five years. The metal in most coins isn't hardened steel, either, so the drilling should be relatively easy.

Mj

Kathy - you might want to think twice about drilling "extinct" coins and have them go the way of the 1999 and 2000 calendar stash - you know, box it up for the great-great-greats? It might put somebody through college one day. Just a thought.

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Mj" :

]At your local Home Depot, or local facsimile, you ]should also be able to find the set-up that converts your hand-held Dremel ]into a mini drill press. Works great ~ I've had mine for over five years.

whoa! i didn't know that! it's going on my list immediately!

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

's not what you take, when you leave this world behind you;it's what you leave behind you when you go. -- Randy Travis

On Fri, 22 Aug 2003 21:58:29 -0400, CLP wrote (in message ):

I have jars full of these things. I plan to use only a handful, and nothing in perfect condition - just regular old road rashed coins from Europe.

Kathy N-V

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from "Mj" :

]Here it is on their website:

*should* be cheaper (or as cheap) at "Home De Pot"]A foot controller is helpful also.WAAAAAAAAAAAAY cool! thank you!

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

's not what you take, when you leave this world behind you;it's what you leave behind you when you go. -- Randy Travis

A dremel will do the job. Centre punch the spot where you want the hole before you drill.

Good point, otherwise the bit will tend to crawl around until you get the hole started, marring the piece. You can buy an inexpensive center punch at any hardward store.

• TL *

There is a Dremel drill press accessory you can buy and fit your standard Dremel tool into. The motor is plenty strong enough for drilling metal ... you'd just need to get the appropriate drill bits for metal.

Might require some kind of cutting oil for best results.

Deirdre

At MicroMark

they have a generic one for about $25 - I don't know how that compares to a Foredom branded one. Might check out electrical supply stores and other hardware places that sell power tools.

Val

----- Original Message ----- From: "Deirdre S." Newsgroups: rec.crafts.beads Sent: Saturday, August 23, 2003 11:52 AM Subject: Re: Drilling Coins

Do they make one for Dremel? I've seen foot-controls for Foredom, but that's too rich for my financial blood at the moment.

Deirdre

Really! I didn't know that either! Nor have I seen one in the Dremel section... :-(

Valerie

Website:

The Draper multi tool is way better then the dremel multi tool if you can get it where you live and it's cheaper too! BF works in a hardware shop and says they're far more reliable and the bits are easier to get hold of!

Charlie.

-- Steve Guyot Guyot Brothers Co Inc Leaders in ornamental stamping since 1904

On Mon, 25 Aug 2003 19:38:26 -0400, Deirdre S. wrote (in message ):

I'll let you know. The price was certainly right, so I ordered it.

Kathy N-V

That sounds very much like a metric buttload to me...

Deirdre

Thanks. I look forward to your Consumer Reports review.

Deirdre

I've used one of these. The good news is, you have a choice of hole size, and they make holes in fairly thick metal. The bad news is, the screw action leaves a bit of a ragged hole on one side which has to be smoothed somehow. This could mess up the look of a piece that's already finished. For those who work with thinner metal (20 ga or less), I recommend the hole punching pliers I just bought from Rio. They punch a clean hole.

• TL *

Seems like most coins would be a good bit thicker than 20 ga., no?

Maybe the holes in coins could be de-burred in a tumbler...???

Deirdre