by Steven D. Johnson
Racine, Wisconsin
This month:
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Gimlets Please (Hold the Turkey)
•
Go "Green" In Your New Workshop
•
No Bad Tools
•
Frozen Wood
Gimlets Please (Hold the Turkey)
Heading out to do a little emergency trim repair, my neighbor was helping me carry some tools. I
said, "Grab those gimlets over there, too."
"Gimlets? I don't understand… you want turkey guts?"
"Where I come from we say 'giblets' with a 'j' my friend… I said gimlets," with some emphasis on
the first syllable.
"Ah, gin and lemon juice… sounds good, but can we still fix my trim?"
"No, no, gimlet, from the French word 'guimbelet,' meaning to bore or twist."
My neighbor was unamused. He, like most of us, gets pretty interested when I show him big burly
noisy power equipment and nods appreciatively at finely crafted heirloom hand tools, and even feigns
interest when he sees me doing something as mundane as sharpening. But my little set of gimlets did
not excite him at all. They should have, because in the Down To Earth Woodworking Shop these are
must-have, constantly used tools.
A set of seven
of these indispensible little augers
costs just $17.00, but are the go-to tools for making a quick pilot hole or through-hole for a screw,
a hole for a nail (to prevent splitting), or a starter hole for a larger power-driven drill bit. In
a pinch I've even used the sharp point of a gimlet as a scratch awl. Gimlets will get into places
that drills sometimes cannot, they are precise, they look pretty cool, and they feel great in your
hand.
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Figure 1 - The sharp point on a gimlet makes
placement for precise hole-starting a breeze
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And what a timesaver! With one or two pilot holes to make, finding the right size drill bit,
chucking it up, and drilling the holes can take several minutes. Grab a gimlet, place the sharp
point precisely on the mark, and with a couple of quick turns, a perfect pilot hole is made. There
is no need to worry about over-drilling or using depth stops, either. With a gimlet, work can be
very precise.
Installing nine sets of drawer slides in the new shop desk / work bench / glue-up table / clutter
catcher
(click here to see the video series), I used a gimlet to quickly and precisely make pilot
holes dead center in the elongated holes in the slides. I could not have been as precise with a
drill bit or by marking with a pencil and drilling. Nor could I have used a self-centering bit in
the elongated holes. If a power drill had gotten away from me I could have easily drilled right
through the side of the cabinet.
Gimlets are formed with a sharp screw thread on the first quarter- to half-inch. That screw thread
then changes to a familiar auger-cutting pattern. That configuration is why you will sometimes hear
these tools called "auger gimlets" or "gimlet augers." The screw tip pulls the point into the work
effortlessly, and if you continue to turn, the augur grooves enter the hole and with each turn cut
and pull the debris from the hole.
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Figure 2 - The auger-style threads pull and eject
wood chips as the gimlet makes a hole
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Well made gimlets,
like those sold by Highland Woodworking, seem to
self-straighten as they enter the work piece, so straight holes are a cinch. I often use the
largest gimlet in the set to make clearance holes for the familiar #8 cabinet pull screws that
accompany most knobs, handles, and pulls. Straight holes make attaching the hardware much simpler.
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Figure 3 - Click image to enlarge, or
CLICK HERE to download a full-size PDF of the chart
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Gimlets are sized (nominally) in metric measurements, and for a while I had a difficult time
matching gimlet to screw, especially for pilot holes. You can do what I did for a long time, and
simply hold the screw up to each size gimlet in turn until you find the gimlet that best matches the
screw you want to use. To simplify, though, we have created a chart you can use.
Try them, and in time, the gimlet may become one of your most-used tools as well.
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