Drilling sideways through 2x6 lumber

You could spend a zillion bucks on an industrial drill press that would have the stroke you want.

You could buy a lathe, chuck the drill bit in the lathe and rig a feed table to move the wood into the bit.

Or, if this is a one time job, I'd just rig up a fixture to allow me to do it with a hand drill.

John

Try

Rich

Nevermind, I misread the stroke of this thing. Sorry.

A friend of mine helped me drill several stacks of 2x4 lumber last summer. We drilled 5 pieces at a time, the skinny way. His drill press is an ancient thing inherited from his dad, but still, there has to be one out there that'll do the job.

What kind of precision do you need? Build a sliding jig for a regular hand-drill.

An old Craftsman radail arm saw will do it. Boring the holes horizontally. A raised table and fence right back against the RAS support post. Slide the boards into position a push the drill through.

try rec.woodworking

if you have really large forearms, you could use an auger in a brace.

If I read your message correctly you need to drill 1200 holes in the end of

Wayne

Simple chore for any ShopSmith owner. HTH

Joe

| | Simple chore for any ShopSmith owner. HTH | | Joe |

It certainly is simple. Using a RAS as a horizontal borer and a little ingenuity 2 people could do this handily. Sure it's work, but digging post holes is a lot tougher. Trust me I know.

Sure it is. Once jigged up it becomes a very boring and tedious job but there is noting difficult about it. Trust me, spent 10 years running a commercial drill press and 1200 holes in steel was nothing. Very boring but nothing.

Harry K

It's 300' of a laid on the ground boardwalk. I want to drill through the boards and run a rope or cable through the holes, with 1/2" spacers, to hold it together in 10' sections.

Drill into the stock 3", raise the table and complete.

Given the use, why do you need to drill in one pass? Set up a 12" drill press with a fence on the table. The DP must have a stroke of at least 1/2 of the 2 x 6. The fence is set to center the board on edge. Drill one side, flip over and drill the other side right through. You should easily be able to get within 1/32" on any given hole. You may want to take a few seconds to be sure you mark the opposite side. The holes near the end are simple as you can set a stop on the fence to accomplish a dead on repeatable location. As you go the length of the 2 x 6 it would be more difficult, but not impossible if you made up a table affair with stops.

Sounds lie a nifty project. Be sure to post some pictures on alt.binaries.pictures.woodworking

Speaking of abpw, if you go there you will see a couple of drill press tables posted about a week or two ago that show fences and stops.

For what you are doing all you need to do is it make a jig to hold the board and you could feed the board to the bit rather than the opposite as long as the jig did not allow the board to turn it would be safe and pretty simple a drill press that will do 6 1/2 is available go to McMastercarr.com just costs a couple of grand a used tool place may have a one for less. You could even take a regular high speed drill with a long bit build a jig and feed the board into it not that difficult to do really. Once the jig is set as has been discussed just a mater of repetition.

Wayne

Make or have made a drill jig that slaps onto the side of the 2x6.

Hold it in place with a couple (maybe one) vise-grip setup clamps.

Get a hand full of 12" drill (or 8" if you can find them www.Mcmaster or shorten the 12" ones for convenience.)

Use a Milwaukee 1/2" HoleShooter & go to town.

Using a such a drill & a really sweet drill jig I was able to drill 25ea 7/16" thru 1" aluminum is about 1/2 hr.

Since you've got 1200 holes to drill cycle time is key unless you want to spend forever doing it.

With a jig it's "no fuss" just set jig & drill............next hole

Pretty easy if it's a standard size hole (.22, .38, .45)