On drilling holes in minifigs

[Mr Greeble]

Hello there! I am attempting to create a four armed minifig by drilling holes in its sides. Anyone have any advice, tips or otherwise?

[Im a brickmaster.]

Well if you drill arm holes they must be a hair smaller then the arm pegs so that they'll stay poped in. Seacond, I dont know if doing so would interfere with the legs in the torso. It's defiently not somthing I would do!

[CrazyDalton777]

Wouldn't it be easier to just cut off the arm peg and attach to the side (as long as you don't need these arms to move.

[Sir Brickalot]

Or use this part and attach it to a minifigure like it was designed to?

[Mr Greeble]

Well I want the arms to move, so gluing is a no, but I also want to have it be the same height as a normal fig, so no garmadon torso. (which I already knew about )

[Darkdragon]

You'll want to use a new bit and tape the torso before drilling to hopefully prevent splitting.

[Wardancer]

I just have the most obvious advice: Try on cheap torsos first :-)

[MAB]

I have done it before. Remove the existing arms, pop masking tape on the torso to stop the drill bit slipping, clamp it and drill away. There are two problems though - you will need to remove most of the studs/grips from the top of the legs which really reduces clutch, so you may need to glue the torso to the legs to keep them together (I did). Also the upper arms will no longer be very free to move - the can point upwards, forwards or backwards, but not down.

An alternative to the Garmadon part is to just add a 2x1 brick and drill that, but again this increases the height of the figure substantially.

Edited September 17, 2014 by MAB

[kurigan]

To avoid cracking I'd suggest drilling a pilot hole. Use a smaller bit than the final hole first and go slowly. Then work up in stages to the intended diameter. To avoid slipping make a divot. If it were metal or wood I'd suggest a spring loaded center punch, but that might be too powerful and crack the torso itself. You could use a sharp nail and tap it lightly but still be careful not to apply too much force.

[Asphalt]

And I highly recommend using a pin vise over an electric drill. I try to never use powered tools on customs.