Is TikTok's Tape Hack Worth Trying When Placing Holes In A Woodworking Project?
When woodworking, you may need to attach two pieces of wood but not show any nails or screws. Dowel pins are one way to achieve this, and they work especially well on DIY projects with narrow, 1x2 wood pieces. To use these pegs, though, you have to drill perfectly straight holes in a precise location on each piece so everything lines up.
TikTok user @tipcentric posted a potential hack for this task that involves masking tape. To follow their process, place the tape sticky side up where you want to drill the holes and then secure it with more tape around the edges. Then, use an awl to mark the holes for the pins' location through the tape. You only need a little bit of depth in the wood. Place the second piece of wood over the sticky side of the tape. Remove the securing strips of tape so the sticky side with the holes transfers to the second piece of wood. Use the marks to drill the holes in both the second and first pieces so they'll line up perfectly.
You may be wondering if this is the best way to handle this process, and you wouldn't be alone — some of the video's comments were quite skeptical. This masking tape method does seem to work, especially if you want an inexpensive option, but other avenues may work even better.
Other options for precise drilling
If you often use dowel pins for your DIY woodworking projects, you may want to spend a little bit of money on a dowel jig kit, which greatly simplifies the process of creating these holes in a precise manner. These kits guide your drill bit perfectly, and they often include stop collars that help you achieve the perfect depth while drilling. The TikTok method doesn't provide any guides for the depth of the holes, nor does it ensure they'll be perfectly straight. When using the kit, you can easily repeat the placement of the holes for each piece of wood you use, making it faster than the tape method. You can find a typical dowel jig kit at Home Depot for about $23.
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Another option for placing the holes is to simply use a tape measure. Measure the piece of wood both lengthwise and widthwise to find the exact coordinates you need. As long as you can read the tape measure properly each time, you should be able to set the holes in the same place for each piece of wood. If you work with the same sizes of wood every time, you can create paper or thin cardboard stencils. Mark the holes in the precise location on the stencil with the first piece of wood and reuse it for every successive piece.