Thread: Help! Wedges keep splitting

I have tried 4 times with wenge, and other woods....keeps splitting when drilling the holes

What if you drill the hole and then shape it into a wedge?

This might be dumb, but I am assuming that you have a scrap piece of soft pine/wood under the wedge when you are drilling right?????

It's not mentioned in your post, but do you drill the holes after the wedge is made or before? Some woods will naturally split much easier, wenge being one of them. Try ebony if you have it and you will see its much less prone to split.

How sharp is the bit?
What kind of bit?
What speed of bit?
Drill press or hand drill?
All the other questions have been asked

Originally Posted by deighaingeal

How sharp is the bit?
What kind of bit?
What speed of bit?
Drill press or hand drill?
All the other questions have been asked

How much pressure are you putting on it?

basically i found out that I had to drill the hole prior to cutting out the wedge shape.

Make sure that your bits are sharp.
Use slow rpm and let the bit do the work. You shouldn't press the drill too much.
Use some piece of scrap wood under the scales and make sure that they don't move. Use clamps etc.

With some hard fragile materials like acrylic, glass or porcelain i've taped the workpiece with painters tape and marked the spot i want to drill with a sharp pencil. I've never tried this with wood but might be worth trying.

I anticipated this problem; that's why I'm gluing my wedges in.