How to use a hand chuck?

The hand drill is a mini hand drill, which will allow you to easily and quickly drillresin or polymer clay pieces , after firing, to insert rings and hang a pendant, a charm, a chain or ear studs.

This manual piercing tool has many surprises in store. It will also be very useful when you want to enlarge the hole of some beads.
But you can also use this precision tool to make pre-holes and prepare the piece before drilling or glue beads without holes on acrylic primers.
Discover in our two videos, the other uses of this drilling tool in jewelry.

1. HOW TO ENLARGE THE HOLE OF A PEARL ?

We all easily succumbed to this fashion of XXL creole earringswith resin beads. You know the ones we saw everywhere last summer and that we still see hanging from the ears of fashionistas. As a fan of DIY jewelry, you want to make the same. But unfortunately the diameter of the hole of the ordered pearls is too small: disaster!
Well, no! Know that for some beads, it is possible to enlarge the hole with a simple hand chuck. In our video tutorial, Lucie shows you how to enlarge the hole of a resin bead using a drill bit.

Step 1: Unscrew the head of your hand drill.

Step 2: Attach the drill bit and screw it in by turning the trigger.

Step 3: Rotate the drill bit into the hole of the bead, applying slight pressure on the handle of the tool (00:00:17). Turn the chuck in one direction and then in the other, until the drill bit goes through the bead (00:00:42). Be careful not to force it too much or you will damage the bead (00:00:57)!

And now you can thread your bead (00:00:45) on your jewel primer.

2. How to make pre-holes ?

Acrylic is a soft material, so it's easy to make a pre-hole to easily insert small balls and other jewelry components. To do this, we will use the ball cutter on theself-tightening chuck.

Step 1: Unscrew the chuck.

Step 2: Attach the drill bit and screw it in by turning the trigger.

Step 3 : Go back and forth with your ball end mill by pressing gently and turning the chuck (00:00:15), until the notch is wide and deep enough (00:00:49) to stick your mini ball (00:01:24).

To make pre-holes to prepare your part before drilling, you will need to do the same.

3. How to drill Fimo clay?

Another use of the hand chuck: to make a hole in the polymer clay or resin.

Before starting to drill, you must ensure that the polymer clay is completely cooled or that the resin is completely dry.

Be sure to choose the diameter of your drill bit according to the diameter of the wire of the rings or the diameter of the wire of the jewelry primers you want to thread. Allow a little bit of slack so that the piece is not too stiff.

Be careful not to make a hole too close to the edge to avoid damaging the piece or too far from the edge to easily add a pendant, earring or jewelry stud.