Homo

seeing stuff like this is so upsetting because these terms were well known and widespread in the ace community but because of exclusionists many people stopped using terms like this because they felt uncomfortable and unsafe.

i loved these terms when i was in highschool, i loved the feeling of community, but i lost that because i didn’t feel comfortable openly and proudly calling myself asexual.

"THEORETICALLY??? I gotta try this. Where's the power drill?"

Note the pilot drill in the middle. This keeps the hole saw centered during cutting so it doesn't go everywhere. Without this, there's a chance of the saw slipping about, and when a bunch of saw teeth are rotating nearby you at incredibly high speeds you do not want them skipping around everywhere, that's how you lose a chunk out of your hand.

It's technically possible, if you're careful and have the right equipment and a death wish, to drill a circular hole without a pilot drill, but it's inadvisable unless you absolutely have to and not something that an inexperienced driller should do. Generally, you use this thing, with the pilot drill on it. A hole saw has regular teeth and moves at a regular speed and the pressure when drilling stays about the same.

But that triangular thing? No fucking way. Look at how that bit is moving. The pressure is NOT the same. It's all over the fucking place. Attach that to a drill and your drill is being pulled every which way. Attach that to a hand drill and you'll win a Darwin award. Drills are using a lot more pressure and speed than it seems when you're using them; I mildly sprained my wrist using one the other day drilling in a normal arse screw with a normal arse bit because the screw caught on something and stopped before the safety torque thingy could catch up. You do NOT fuck around with bits that provide shaky, unpredictable forces like that. You would not, ever, use a bit like that without a pilot drill. That thing goes on a massive, heavy duty, carefully calibrated piece of factory equipment behind a safety shield and nowhere else. In fact, I wouldn't even use a bit like that at home *with* a pilot drill, unless I had the most stable drill press of all time. Absolutely never on a hand drill.

Okay, so we can use it at home on a really good drill press if we had a pilot drill, right?

Nope. Look at how it moves. It's impossible to put a pilot on that thing. The bit has to cross over the middle to function. It'd collide with the pilot.

We have multiple solutions to that problem, depending on what you're trying to put the hole in and how big you want it to be. Some include:

Punch the hole

Cast a piece with a triangle hole in it already

Use a jigsaw, or similar cutting tool

Use a drill bit or similar tool designed for etching, with a stencil if need be, and dig your way down layer by layer

If you have ten billion years to spare, stencil and chisel

Carefully sized circular blade on an appropriately designed tool, lower into the material to make three cuts

Laser

I'm not one to post fundraisers, my followers know this, but if you can spare a few dollars to give to this incredible organization I would be so grateful