Advice sought on drilling

[Bob Martin]

What is the best way to drill a hole in the end of a 3-metre length of

38mm x 50mm pine. Hole to be 12mm diameter and 100mm deep.

The hole must be parallel to sides of the piece.

Bob Martin

[Lawrence Wasserman]

Doesn't sound like it would be to tough to do by hand with a hand held drill. If you need more precision than that will deliver, you could drill through a shorter length of the same size stock on a drill press, then use that shorter piece as a drill guide by clamping it to the 9 meter piece with 2 clamps and another board, aligning the short piece with a straight edge while clamping so that it is parallel to the 9 meter piece.

[George]

Ship auger?

[Doug Miller]

Perhaps you could use a portable drill, with a dowelling jig as a guide.

-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

Nobody ever left footprints in the sands of time by sitting on his butt. And who wants to leave buttprints in the sands of time?

[Andy Dingley]

Get a long drill and turn it slowly. If you find something like a hand auger, that's much longer than you're drilling and so eyeballing the length sticking out will be adequate.

Drill it under power and you'll probably screw it up - you don't get time to respond and correct it.

[deanbrown3d]

Get someone else to help. You can look one direction, they look the other and adjust your hands accordingly.

[Andy Dingley]

If you're doing big stuff, like timber framing, sometimes two spotters are worth having - one looks on each axis. If you're using a big powerdrill and maybe a 2" auger, you need to keep your head up with the drill. You can't see the bit alignment but you can see hand signals.

This is particularly important if you're draw-boring. That needs to be drilled separately for each part, so you've got to keep the square so that you can match the angles on both pieces.

[Norman D. Crow]

This is one of the few cases where a Shopsmith® is worth it's keep. Set it up as a horizontal drill press with table surface parallel to the drill bit, get everything lined up and drill.

[Lew Hodgett]

Find an engine lathe and chuck up a ship's augur in the tail stock after centering piece in the lathe chuck.

(May need a 4 jaw chuck depending on the stock)

Slow and steady gets the job done.

Lew

[Bob Martin]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm using a 12mm flat wood bit and the end describes a 5mm circle when rotated in the drill. I used a dowel guide but as soon as the bit hits the wood it seems to go off in the direction of least resistance ! I tried about a dozen test pieces, including with a complicated jig involving mounting a drill-stand on its side, but none of the results were satisfactory. I think I'll go with Andy's suggestion and borrow a hand-drill.

Bob Martin

[Andy Dingley]

Those will make it even harder for you.

If you can find an auger, you'll get better support inside the hole. A carpenter's auger has a squared end to fit into a brace, a scotch auger has a hole to take a tommy bar - you don't even need the hand drill.

[Ray_Manor]

Am I missing something? It seems to me that the problem with drilling long straight holes into end grain is that the bit will follow the wood grain. I thought "barefoot" ship augers where made for this exact reason. Barefoot meaning "without a center spur or screw." The elimination of the spur was to prevent it from following the grain and having the hole wander off line.

ray

[George]

So use a bit which guides and feeds itself - ships auger. You looked at what it is? The sharp lead screw is tapered, the sides guide. Makes no difference what you're rotating it with, though it might actually be worse under power rather than with brace or T bar, producing chips at a faster rate than it can eject them.

As to method, you'll need a prepared guide for initial alignment and one for the extension(s). Suggest shorter sections of the same stock to simplify the centering, and clamping the whole in line.

[Andy Dingley]

It's not a long hole though. For 4" long and only about 1:8 aspect ratio you can just keep it straight by pushing on the auger.

Otherwise use a woodturner's "lamp standard bit", which is like a long spoon bit. You throw those at a piece of rotating timber and geometry forces them right down the centre - they just won;t go anywhere else.

[Lawrence Wasserman]

I guess you are kidding here, we are talking about a 1/2" hole that is

4 inches deep.

[mike hide]

I would take my 2 kilometer nail gum and put a 20 centimeter hole on the end of the piece ....mjh

[Ray_Manor]

The original requirement was:

"The hole must be parallel to sides of the piece."

A barefoot auger was made for the job at hand. Anything with a center spur will follow grain. How does "pushing on the auger" stop this? And just what margin of error for wander are you assuming?

The other suggestion, to use a wood turner's "lamp standard bit" is really off the wall. All one has to do is "throw a piece of a piece of rotating timber". Now how is this going to help the original poster drill a hole in the end of 38 X 50 mm stick 3 meters long? Would you describe just what it is you would use to get that stick rotating?

Just having a little fun with ya Andy ;>)

ray

[Andy Dingley]

Put it in the lathe, through the hole in the headstock. If the hole isn't already big enough, the lathe is of course the perfect tool for boring it out larger.