Hole-drilling Template

in this house, projects often involve drilling a set of holes in multiple pieces of wood. A template ensures the holes end up in the same place every time.

One project required the holes to be accurately positioned, and I worried that the holes in a cardboard template would wear and lose accuracy during use. So I designed and 3D-printed this plastic template.

The template has sides and an end that fit over the board being drilled. In this photo, the holes are marked green on the wood. The rectangular cutouts reduce the amount of plastic used for printing.

The etmplate worked perfectly, and I discarded it when the project was finished. It took 20 minutes to print, and cost only 5¢ – a small price to pay for repeaated accuracy.