How do I drill through a minimum 12" oak rod (approx. 2 inches in diameter)...?

Question

to insert a soft iron rod through it's core? This is a very specialized woodworking project so I know the specs are unusual, but any advice someone could give would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Answer 1

To dill a hole for a metal tube to make a lamp I usually use a lathe and a boring tool. You can enlarge the hole to whatever size you need.

Answer 2

You're going to need a lathe that will open wide enough to hold the oak and support a 14" auger bit. You could use a drill press but it would take a pretty wild jig to secure the oak. The make auger bits generally used by electricians that are 14" long and look more like a corkscrew than a drill bit. If you're not familiar with using a lathe I recommend finding a furniture manufacturing store in  your area. I'll tell you I've also taken wood projects to machine shops they usually have larger equipment than wood shops and they don't charge much for things like this.Check your yellow pages for Machinists

Answer 3

Are you able to drill, freehand, and hit your mark? I have done this successfully a number of times drilling freehand and by eye, making such things as pipes for smoking or lamps, out of various shaped pieces of wood.

As was already suggested, the setup of chucking the wood in a lathe and then boring it out with something like a lamp augur is the best way to go, but that might be a little too specialized for you?

If you hunt around a little, you can buy ordinary twist drills in longer lengths ( http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&rh=n%3A2... for example). These kind of drills are not usually in regular hardware stores, but if you look around you can find them. You can get them from Amazon, among other places. You didn't specify what the diameter of hole you needed was, but if you got one of these longer length twist drills and then drilled it out from either end, meeting in the middle, you should be able to do the job for low cost and without any specialized gear. You will want to practice a few times on some scrap to make sure you can do this by eye. Drilling in 6" from each end shouldn't be too hard to do by hand and by eye. Since this is oak and since you will be boring into the end grain, I would not recommend using an augur bit, of the kind used with a bit brace. An common and ordinary twist drill, such as is used for metal, will be fine for this job.

Since you'll be boring along the length of the 2" oak dowel, be prepared for the drill to drift a little in case it wants to follow the grain. You might consider going with an over-sized hole and setting the iron rod with epoxy.

Answer 4

you say a 12" oak rod.   Do you mean 12" oak dowel, and you want to insert a smaller diameter iron rod?  The challenge then would be keeping the bit centered on the oak all the way through, correct?

If the lathe idea isn't workable, try a drill press that will allow a bit to travel through its base.  Then get as long a bit as you need, you can get bit extensions at a woodworking supply or at menards or home depot.  Then you'll need to improvise some sort of a jig, picture a miniature oil derrick or something like that, where you clamp or otherwise attach both the drill press on top, and the stock you wish to drill underneith, in such a way as to allow you to add length to the drill bit as you make your way through the stock.

I think the metaphor would be an earth drilling process where you gradually add more parts to the bit shaft

Answer 5

The lathe approach would be best, but if you build a simple jig to hold the oak dowell & a drill so that the centers meet , It works fine.

Had a piece too long for the lathe & built a V channel to slide the wood toward  a cordless  drill which was stationary.

Depending on the diameter of the hole you either buy a long bit or .

you can flip the dowell around & work from the other end also if it will reach.

A twist drill will not creep off center as mich as a spade bit, but a spade bit is easier & cheaper to use with an extension if the extension socket is smaller dia than the hole diameter.

Run the work onto the bit slowly ( not too fast on the drill speed) & back it off frequently to clear  chips ..

Best regards