Conquering the Fear of Drill Bits

Back in the day I used to think that drilling was something for specialists only. If I needed to hang a picture on my wall, I called my dad (who happens to be a specialist, conveniently enough…) If I needed to fix the light fixture – call the specialist…

But it all changed when I got my own house pretty far away from everybody who could help me, and paid so much for it that there was no money left to call in a professional.

The first tentative drilling steps involved hanging up the family pictures. Or… the terror of making a whole in the wall. The mystery of how the picture going to actually hang on it… I still get goosebumps remembering the first time I turned the drill on all by myself. All I could think about was “goodbye wall and goodbye fingers”.

Surprisingly enough that experience went quite well. Turned out that there was really more fuss about it than needed. Given the right drill (and I got a great one as a gift from my specialist dad) and the right bit (yes, he also explained to me how to choose a drill bit size to match the screws) the whole task literally took seconds.

Then I felt incomplete and drilled a whole set of wholes just for future frames. Decorating the house, you know?

And then there was that day when I was stuck with a baby gate and had to mount it on all by myself, or else chase the baby without a break till he learns to listen to me. The odds of him listening where too small, so up from the basement came the power tools.

I’m still proud of the precision workmanship I showed that day. Turns out the gate was a bit misaligned at the plant, so I even had to drill a whole in the metal to make it actually fit on the frame! And I had diamond drill bits lying around handy! That was too fulfilling. I don’t think I’m taking that gate off anytime soon. It has my bragging rights all over it.

I guess another thing that increased my comfort with basic drilling is the fact that drill bits are now pretty much everywhere. That makes them seem like the kind of thing everyone is using. And if everyone can – why not me?

And why not you either? Really, it’s not as scary as it seems…