In this video I show you how I drill clean holes through multiple layers of thick cardboard using a cordless drill—without wrecking your top layer or blowing out the bottom. The big idea is simple: sandwich your cardboard. I put my stack over a backing piece (wood or even extra cardboard) to protect the table and make the bottom hole look nicer, and then I add a sacrificial board on top so I can hit an exact spot. If you need perfect alignment, I’ll even pre-drill the sacrificial board so it drops right onto my mark. Then I run the drill on the highest speed and go full bore—but I feed it down slowly so the bit has time to clear out the cardboard dust instead of tearing everything up. For small holes, I’ve had the most success with brad point bits because the center point bites first and my “normal” bits tend to walk around and make more fluff. For big holes, I use a paddle bit, but it has to be sharp and it clogs fast—so I pull it out and clear it every layer or so. I also drill a little “reservoir” hole in the wood underneath so the last plug can punch out cleaner. And if you don’t even have a drill, I point you to my other method where you can get insanely clean, crispy holes without drilling at all.