Hand drills are excellent for drilling through surfaces like wood. They have a hard time against anything super strong like metal, though. It’s hard to drill through those with these tools.
However, you can still do the job with the right technique and toolset. I cracked the code on how to flawlessly drill a large hole through metal with a hand drill, and you can read about it below.
I also made a short video showing how you can drill a hole through a metal using only a hand drill and different sizes of drill bits. You can watch it below.
First, make sure to set your hand drill in “Drilling Mode”. Then, begin drilling through the metal using the 8mm drill bit. After that, use the 24mm drill bit to drill the surface of the metal plate.
Next, use the 20mm drill bit to drill. Keep changing between 20mm and 24mm drill bit until fully drill through the iron metal plate until you finish drilling the hole.
How To Drill Hole Through Metal With A Hand Drill
What You’ll Need
Believe it or not, a simple hand drill is good enough to help you drill a hole through metal. You don’t need any other tools or something. All you need are good drill bits.
One drill bit won’t be enough to drill a large hole through metal for you. You’ll need two or three different ones, each with varying sizes. That’s the trick to doing this! I’ll explain more soon.
I was able to drill through a metal plate using my hand drills and all I did was switch around drill bits. I used three different sizes, which are as follows:
- 8mm drill bit
- 20mm drill bit
- 24mm drill bit
Depending on just how big of a hole you’re trying to make, you can adjust the sizes around. But, since that’s what I did, those are the bits and sizes I’ll use for reference down the line.
The first thing I did was use the 8mm drill bit to cut cleanly through the metal plate, which you can see me doing below. This is the easiest step thanks to the thin and small size of the 8mm bit.
This small hole through the metal plate will act as a foundation for the bigger hole. It makes the whole process much easier for your hand drill, which you’ll see when you try it yourself!
Anyway, once the 8mm drill bit goes through the metal plate, switch to the 24mm bit after that. Try to drill as far as you can with the 24mm drill bit.
You’ll know when it’s time to stop once you feel too much resistance. The hand drill will start to sway and users will feel like they’re putting too much force to keep the tool in place.
Related: Fixing a Makita Drill Bit Stuck: My Tips
Until that point comes, keep going with your 24mm drill bit like I’m doing down here. The 8mm hole you made earlier will notably help and make this much smoother on the drill.
When you feel like the 24mm drill bit isn’t drilling reliably anymore, that’s when you switch to the 20mm drill bit. Use it to drill deeper into the metal plate.
The 20mm bit will cut through the center of the hole and make the job easier for the 24mm drill bit. That’s why you need all these different drill bits in the first place!
Keep switching between the 24mm and 20mm drill bit. Once you feel too much resistance on one bit, switch to the other. Constantly swap them out until you make it all the way through the metal!
You can see above how switching between the two drill bits is helping my hand drill make a large hole through the metal. It’s really as easy as that.
Constantly changing around the drill bits is time-consuming, sure. However, it’s a great way to make sure there’s no problem on your hand drill, and that it makes a large hole in metal flawlessly!
Just look at the photo under this to see how effective it truly is. This is the hole I was able to make while following this method on a thick sheet of metal.
Get a few different drill bits, and you’ll be able to recreate the whole thing yourself. Keep in mind to always use good quality drill bits and nothing too cheap to avoid damaging the drill and metal.
