"The smallist drill bit you can find," Topic

I recently acquired some Three Musketeer miniatures, unfortunately three of them had their swords broken off. A couple of others had the same thing happen to them, but the previous owner had fixed them by drilling and mounting a large needle on the sword hilt to replace the missing sword bit, and those look fine.

My problem is, where in the world do I find a drill bit small enough to make hole the size of a large needle? Aside from a dentist supply shop, does anyone else know where to get really small drill bits?

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I got a set of drill bits from our local Hobbycraft. They were as small as 0.3mm. I used to get them from a local hardware store until it closed. Try looking online on eBay or Amazon and you might find some there. If there is a model railway shop near you, they might stock them too.

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Pin vise and bits from any good general hobby retailer, or perhaps something from the Dremel aisle at the hardware store.

Doug

Harbor freight! Wouldn't have even thought to look there.

Thanks.

I used to just ask my dentist to save them for me. They have very tiny ones. I was using them for bone carving.

Your local model railroad shop should have a wide selection.

I've got a set like these.

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I use the smallest for drilling holes in micro-armor for the placement of light-test plastic fishing line antennas.

Got mine at Hobby Bench. NOTE: pick up a few extras of the tiniest ones. The break easily.

My local Ace hardware sells individual bits down to around a #80 for pretty cheap. You might try shops like that.

Thanks for the pointer to Harbor Freight – I am always breaking my pin vice bits.

For truly small holes, you may want to contact Starlite Industries. They make some truly teeny diamond tips that I used to use in a Dremel drill press to make truly small holes in an extremely hard substance for thermal measurements. Short of a laser, I think this is the smallest non-energy based way to make very small diameter uniform holes in hard solid matter. The tips are basically a very thin shaft with a diamond dust adhered to the flat tip at the end. I immersed the test subject in water and "drilled" the hole at slow RPM. This had to be the most tedious lab work I ever did in a life of tedious, meticulous microscopic work. ;-)

Lost Pict

Get these from Widget Supply, inexpensive and strong drills bits. link

Try these, EW : link . They also do mixed sets and sizes down to 0.15mm.

You can use a pin vice with a 5/32 chuck, but I find that I get more control using my fingers. The plastic collet on the shank is just the right size and stops the bit slipping.

Cheers.

Dal.

yup. Wal Mart carries them for use with Dremels in a multi pack of varying sizes. I have 2 and use them to drill holes in the bottom of fleet scale fighters for wire mounting.

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I just got a pack of micro-drills from my local model shop. Then go down to 0.1mm, which is really teeny tiny.

For something as huge as a needle, you probably want at least a 0.5mm (which is the diameter of my more recent flight stands, the 0.3mm ones were too flimsy for some types of plane).

They are available at most hobby stores. I use them to replace 15mm standards. Even able to put the eagle back on the "pole" by drilling out the tiny eagle.

Hobbyists best friend. Very tedious work though.

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What do you recommend for 15mm standards? I'm going to need some soon and my local model shop has a variety of tubes and solid rods in various materials, but advice based on experience is always useful! Thanks.

Freiherr Graham- I have used entomology pins ( used for displaying insect specimens), found them on Ebay uk. Very thin, but strong. They are quite sharp though, so you might want to put a finial of some sort on the top end. I also use them for 15 mm lances.