This Front Panel Makes Its Own Clean-Edged Drill Guides

March 30, 2026 by Donald Papp 8 Comments

We haven’t seen an instrument panel quite like [bluesyann]’s, which was made by curing UV resin directly onto plywood with the help of a 3D printer and a bit of software work. The result is faintly-raised linework that also makes hand drilling holes both cleaner and more accurate.

The process begins by designing the 2D layout in Inkscape, which has the advantage of letting one work in 1:1 dimensions. A 10 mm diameter circle will print as 10 mm; a nice advantage when designing for physical components. After making the layout one uses OpenSCAD to import the .svg and turn it into a 3D model that’s 0.5 mm tall. That 3D model gets loaded into the resin printer, and the goal is to put it directly onto a sheet of plywood.

A little donut shape makes a drill centering feature, and the surrounding ring keeps the edges of the hole clean.

To do that, [bluesyann] sticks the plywood directly onto the 3D printer’s build platform with double-sided tape. With the plywood taking the place of the usual build surface, the printer can cure resin directly onto its surface. Cleanup still involves washing uncured resin off the board, but it’s nothing a soak in isopropyl alcohol and an old toothbrush can’t take care of.

[bluesyann] has a few tips for getting the best results, and one of our favorites is a way to make drilling holes easier and cleaner. Marking the center of a drill hit with a small donut-shaped feature makes a fantastic centering guide, making hand drilling much more accurate. And adding a thick ring around the drill hole ensures clean edges with no stray wood fibers, so no post-drilling cleanup required. Don’t want the ring to stick around after drilling? Just peel it off. There’s a load of other tips too, so be sure to check it out.

A nice front panel really does make a project better, and we’ve seen many different approaches over the years. One can stick laminated artwork onto an enclosure, or one can perform toner transfer onto 3D printed surfaces by putting the design on top of the 3D printer’s build surface, and letting the heat of molten plastic do the work of transferring the toner. And if one should like the idea of a plywood front panel but balk at resin printing onto it, old-fashioned toner transfer works great on wood.

Angled Drill Guide Helps You With Those Tricky Holes

August 18, 2022 by Zoe Skyforest 18 Comments

If you’ve ever tried to drill a hole on an angle with a power drill, you’ve probably drilled some pretty shocking holes. To do it right, you really need some mechanical assistance, and this jig from [Kartik_Nandrui] should do the trick.

The device uses a guide that sits on the surface to be drilled, with a pair of angled connectors that fit two wooden dowels. These connect the guide to a corresponding sleeve that fits around the drill body. The sleeve then slides up and down the dowels, allowing the drill to move in a straight line towards the targeted area.

It’s a useful hack, but we can see room for some improvements that would take it to the next level. Having a way to lock the angle of the guide base would be great for accuracy. As it’s 3D printed, it would also be simple to create a version with a curved guide base that could fit over pipes, or other designs to fit complex geometries like roof sheeting or other corrugated materials.

Sometimes the most interesting hacks are the ones that get us thinking about our own potential projects. If you’ve got any creative tool hacks you’ve been brewing up in the lab, be sure to let us know!

Print Your Own Drill Guide Without A Linear Bearing

July 18, 2022 by Matthew Carlson 15 Comments

Typically we often don’t cover paid products here on Hackaday, but we couldn’t help but be impressed with this 3D printed drill guide from [USSA]. While you’ll need to pay the toll to access the STL files and plans, there’s an excellent video showing a bit of magic behind the curtain that you can check out free of charge. There are several interesting insights and some great techniques put into this design that anyone could take and apply to their own project.

First, what is a drill guide? Many of us don’t have the luxury of a full-sized drill press, so we have to make do with a hand drill. There are various jigs and tricks to get straighter holes, but it can be frustrating to mark out threaded screw inserts with great precision only to discover all the inserts are at an angle and the circuit board won’t fit. A drill guide ensures holes are plunged straight up and down and at a reliable depth.

[USSA] starts by showing the node-based CAD that makes up the design (a program called Grasshopper). As he assembled it, simple nuts and screws held it together. But rather than clamp two separate pieces together, the screws compress the single plastic with a clever slot in the side to allow the plastic to flex. Several 3D printed jigs were used for assembling the bearing shaft. Ultimately the results look quite impressive, and it’s an inspiration for our own printed projects.

Continue reading “Print Your Own Drill Guide Without A Linear Bearing” →