Hiding Drill Holes

[Vector01]

Here's a trick I've been using to hide the drill holes when cutting a piece. I call it an "elongated teardrop" (for lack of a better term). The most important thing is to use a drill bit small enough that you can still feed your blade through. I use a FD-PSR5 blade for most of my cuts and found a 3/64" drill bit works well.

[attachment=0]teardrop1.jpg[/attachment]

After feeding your blade through the hole, start about midpoint in the hole with the blade against the left inside edge. Cut a path from that point tapering into your pattern line. When done, back up your blade to the entry hole and do the same on the opposite side. You will find when doing the opposite side that your blade will want to "jump" back into your first cut line. To rectify this apply slight side pressure against the blade while cutting to prevent this. Due to the width of the kerf you will actually be shaving off the wood as opposed to cutting another line. This will work on straight lines as well as curves.

[Firedkm]

Great Tip Vector!

[Travis]

I do something similar. I'll sometimes put the hole in the middle of the line and taper it off both ways. Great tip and illustration.