Coffee Cup - Ceiling aid (2x)

Drilling into your ceiling is bad enough without all the debris dropping into your eyes and onto your precious floor.
Painting your ceiling is bad enough too, all the paint drips onto your hands and onto your furniture.

Don't postpone your project any longer! Just drink a cup of coffee and start your project!

Step 1: What you need.

Obviously, since this is an entry for the "Coffee Cup Challenge", you will need one empty coffee cup (make sure it's made of paper!).
Drill or punch a small hole into the bottom of the cup.

Comments

[Izzy Panzer]

Simple and great

[mary candy]

nice idea ;)

[ssrisod]

great for the people who need to learn

[mahesh.ganpate]

assowom..... idea..

[skylane]

 Great tip!
I used to have a cut off bottom of a 2L cola bottle that I used for this purpose.
Now I'm slapping my forehead, thinking "Why didn't I think of this"  LOL

[bertus52x11]

Would work even better I guess...
Just wait for the Coca Cola Challenge, you'll get your chance. Meanwhile, don't tell anybody!  ;-)

[startree]

so simple, so useful! I was trying to work out how to adapt it for drilling into a wall so you inspired me to do my own 'ible:
www.instructables.com/id/Drilling-dust-catcher-low-tech/
Nowhere near as elegant as yours in it's simplicity I"m afraid.

[bertus52x11]

Nice to hear! You know, with DIY, as long as it does the job (no need to look good and do a bad job).

[startree]

spoken like a true pragmatist :)

[demoplayer]

 doesn't the cup wobble though? or is it not a problem?

[bertus52x11]

Use your index finger to stop it from rotating...

[sfcsarah]

is that safe though?

[bertus52x11]

What's your concern? Is it not safe because you have one finger less to grip or because your finger is closer to the drill?

[demoplayer]

 both. Does the cup ever spin fast and come off? Do you think you could upload a video of it in use?

[bertus52x11]

Your finger is always more than 3 cm from the drill (the edge of the cup), so it is unlikely. In the event you should touch it, there is no problem. You can touch a concrete drill while it is rotating because the sides are blunt (just as long as you don't want to stop it with your fingers). With metal or wood this is different. The only worry is your hair or sleeves.
Holding the drill with one finger less has never caused any problems as the drill does not really "bite"in concrete. 90% handling is done by the hand that operates the button.
A video, I would have to drill a hole in my ceiling for demonstration purposes...
The cup does not come of.

[ferrari484]

 Simple but ill probably work very well nice job. 

[gateon]

I can see that this (to me, for me) is only brilliant for short fix its, if I were drilling through drywall all day I would just get safety glasses (like you should be wearing, along with a resperator of course) and, well, deal with it until it's finished. This is a genius mod, I hope you dont take this statement as an insult, just pointing out where I would go wrong with it.

[Celtic Davey]

respirator 2 drill drywall? slight over kill?

[bertus52x11]

No insult, cause your remarks are mostly valid. It's never intended to be a "professional" solution.

[nepheron]

 Why didn't I think of that!

[JermsG]

Inspired genius. I'm sure a lot of other people (not just me) are saying "why didn't I think of that?"

[jtmcdole]

 Genius.

[OmeJozz]

My first thought exactly.
Gotta remember this one on my next project...

[AfdhalAtiffTan]

 Creative...

[dleivam]

 Brilliant!! beautifully simple.

[milo0is0hot0]

such a simple solution i like it!!! i'm an electrician, and have to do loads of ceilling drilling for lights etc...although i think maybe a paper/foam bowl could work better for some jobs...its like a paper plate and a cup in one!!!!
anyway nice instructable!!!!

[twdougan]

I like the idea, but doesn't this limit how far you can drill into the ceiling?

[bertus52x11]

It has never happened to me. However, should this be the case you can alway continue and "buckle" the cup (it is never full).

[johnny3h]

OR, just simply cut a few inches off of the top of the cup.  I've been using this "trick" for years, and even have used paper plates instead of cups.  Depending on "flying" distance of drilling chips, a paper plate being wider can catch more debris.

[WoodMaven]

This one certainly works, I am a marine carpenter and I have been using it for years when drilling overhead into fiberglass ceilings. I have also done something very similar when I had to use a router overhead, obviously something a bit larger than a paper cup is needed , like one of those waxed paper mixing buckets. It works best with a Porter Cable 1 1/2 hp router, put the whole body of the router through the bottom of the bucket, between the motor and base and you are in business.

[Yerboogieman]

Congratulations on being published on Lifehacker.

[bertus52x11]

Thanks.

[Sunbanks]

Brilliant!

And it looks better than the plain white coffee cups :P 

[Jayefuu]

Congrats. You're on Make :D

[bertus52x11]

Thanks! What is Make?

[Jayefuu]

here's the article you're featured in

[bertus52x11]

Wow, thanks.

[localtalent]

Wish we had known about this when we were putting up shelves - would certainly have saved some vacuum time. 

[Decepticon]

This was a 15 second commercial tip on the DIY network detailing this exactly. 

[laxap]

Brilliant by its simplicity.

How much dust passes through the drill bit hole?