Tools for Polymer Clay Bead Making You Can Personalize

Tip #44: How To Make Custom Handles for Your Polymer Clay Drill Bits:

The best way to enlarge holes in your beads is by using common metal drill bits. But using a power drill with these bits can be dangerous since you have to hold the beads in your fingers during the drilling process. So I play it safe and just spin the bits by hand.

Now I guess you could use a clunky vise-grip tool or locking pliers to grab onto the end of the individual bits. Or… you could make your own custom bit handles out of polymer clay like I do.

All you have to do is mold the clay around the end of the bit, personalize with some decorative cane slices if you like, and then bake to harden as you would with any other bead or pendant.

However, molding the clay around a straight bit shank usually does not form a very good bond and the bit is likely to come loose from the handle fairly quickly.

There's 2 ways to solve the problem of the bit coming loose:

1. Use Bond 527 glue to re-secure it back into the polymer clay handle. Or better yet…
2. Before you even form the clay handle around the bit, put a slight bend in the bit shank. This bent shank idea does a great job of keeping the bit secured inside of the handle. (NOTE: you will need a bench mounted vice for bending bits. But don't bend too far because they will break).

>> Tools For Polymer Clay Beads <<

"Customized Drilling Tools" Video Description: The full version of this tutorial is available in my, Polymer Clay Bead Making for Beginners course. In it I go through the step by step process of actually making customized drill bit handles for your growing collection of polymer clay tools.