POTD- PROJECT OF THE DAY: What Did You Make In Your Shop Today?

[savarin]

Is that a wood drill? Not a long ordinary twist drill? Can't tell if there's spacers on it, or just a really long wood bit.

A long wood auger, I thought with the sharp wings and screw point it would track straight.

 

[RJSakowski]

Drilling deep holes in wood can be especially problematic. Hitting a knot would be enough to deflect the drill bit slightly and from there, it will continue off course.

I approach the problem by drilling a small diameter pilot hole from either end . I drill the first hole to the halfway point and the second hole past the intersection as far as the bit will permit. This tends to blend the two paths and straighten the hole at the middle. I then follow with a slightly larger diameter drill, again from either end which further blends and straightens the hole. If permissible, I continue the process with successively larger diameters until I reach my finish diameter. The result is a reasonably straight hole.

 

[dkemppai]

I think a gun drill may be the final answer or maybe a "D" bit.

Gun drill. Played around with a homemade one years ago. Managed to drill a 1/8" hole 14" in mild steel as a test...

Not sure if density changes in wood will mess with you, but it's still a good option to try.

 

[WobblyHand]

A long wood auger, I thought with the sharp wings and screw point it would track straight.

Whoops, missed the first picture.

Drills are strange. They go straight, unless we are counting on that!

 

[pavyan]

It worked a treat until about 3/4s through whereupon the auger popped out the side.

Very deep (long) holes in wood are difficult to make because of the non-uniform structure of the wood.
Wood has grain, concentric alternating structures: hard (summerwood? heartwood?*) and soft (springwood? sapwood?*). This is the reason why it is difficult to make a STRAIGHT long hole, especially when these structures are aslant and are randomly arranged in the drilled bar; this is something completely different than homogeneous metal.
So, this is almost always the case and this is the reason a very long drill in wood is pulled to the side and deviates from the axis because a very long drill bit it is not perfectly rigid, but elastic.

This is the main reason, while the second reason is the asymmetry of the traditional drill blade edges, even a small one; as you say, perhaps special drills with one cutting edge (self-centering barrel drill or cannon drill, type D) would do the trick - but I am not personally convinced of this. In addition, you will have to withdraw them every few millimeters, because such a drill has very little space for chips.
This is generally a very difficult job, you have set yourself a serious problem.

I used to make such long wooden bars with a perfectly concentric "blind"( ) long hole - but first I cut lengthwise a slightly larger strip in half, next I milled channels in the two half-strips with a ball-end cutter, then I glued these strips and only then I processed the whole thing in a round shape.

I don't know if such an option is acceptable to you.

* I don't know the English terminology regarding wood structure, I don't know if I used these words correctly.

 

[CJ5Dave]

Not today, but I made this torch holster for the propane blowtorch . Need it for the Hardy Heater and when we used to cook Boston Butts a lot.

 

[lordbeezer]

I rough cut a butt stock for a martini rifle years ago. Held to action with a thru bolt. Cold and rainy day so decided to drill in my reloading room. Hand held drill with freshly sharpened 18”spade bit. Marked my desired path for hole both ends. Started drilling front end looked good couple inches. Went to back end. Drilled pull bit. Clean. Did few times. Looked good.sit in chair. Ended up holding stock on legs. Bit angle looked good. Bit came thru side of butt stock bout half way. Buried bit into my left leg. Couldn’t get it out. Called brother close by. Was a chore to get it off and out of leg. Long story hopefully will keep others from doing something stupid like I did.

 

[pavyan]

I sympathize, a terrible adventure... many years ago I had very bloody accident - with a wood planer... brrrr!!!

I have drilled stocks intended to black powder rifles replica for a through bolt several times - but I always did it from the lock side to the buttplate.
I always did it with a handheld electric drill over a long milling table (extended drill bit parallel to it), and the butt stock was securely mounted in a machine vice.
This allowed for quite precise guidance of the drill, in the desired direction, and the deviations of the outlet were small.
The entrance of the hole had to be precisely located, but the outlet did not have to be.

Of course, I used an extended drill bit, sharpened especially for wood, with a "stinger" - it gives much smaller deviations in a long hole:


The next step was to drill the outlet of the hole with a bigger drill with a pilot, for the head of the long screw securing the lock to the stock.

 

[rwm]

copper rivets:

 

[pontiac428]

copper rivets:

Nice! Whatcha riveting?