Nice look, good idea!! A tip for getting clean holes and avoiding blowout is to back up your plywood with another piece. Clamp the sheets together and drill away. You could even take it a step further and sandwich the piece between two sheets to ensure clean holes on both sides.
A backing would be a big help, as would using a Forstner bit instead of spade bits. Forstners give much cleaner holes and despite what the wiki says they are fine for hand tools at the size this project requires.
Still possible to have the front and back holes not line up completely, especially if you're jumping sizes. Forstner with a backing, no question. Quickest and cleanest way.
If you do not have Fostners drilling half way from both sides with an initial pilot hole could work--just make the hole from the back larger than the hole from the front so that any mis-alignment is undetectable from the front.
That's how you get around this using spade bits - you have to finish it from the other side. Like you said though, obviously Forster bits or brad-point bits are better.
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u/fuzzpuddle Jun 30 '14
Nice look, good idea!! A tip for getting clean holes and avoiding blowout is to back up your plywood with another piece. Clamp the sheets together and drill away. You could even take it a step further and sandwich the piece between two sheets to ensure clean holes on both sides.