Hi John,
I got a special drill for you, if it's not too late.
Unfortunately drills designed for metal are do not work too well on wood, especially when you are drilling end-grain . I used to have to hand drill a 7/16" hole in the lip of a 90+ lb steel tub about 28" in dia and a foot deep, the walls and bottom were over 1/2 an inch thick.
This was a second (manual) op for an indexing head, used on XXXBrandNameXXX Radiation treatment machine to focus the Radiation wave. The machines that rotate around ones body while lying on their back. The hole received a SS pin which oriented the 360 degree band that wrapped around it to the machine.
This hole had to be 1 1/4 inches deep and after hoisting that drum up on the Bridgeport mill, with the table ALL the way up and standing on a 6 foot ladder to drill these holes I was worn out and went thru three or four jobber bits a day.
The on-site tool grinder modified a split point drill for me, like this:
This is very simple to do with a bench grinder. Grind the trailing edge of the drill (Shiny ground section) back to where it cannot contact the material you are drilling (get it completely out of the way and back about an inch along the drill); don't try and sharpen the leading or cutting edge at all, just grind away the trailing edge, bit pointing upwards, leaving about 1/16 - 3/32nds of the cutting edge intact. You will not believe how fast this drill will go through mild steel. It will look kind of like a spade bit for wood now, but with a better angle, better steel and much sturdier.
The 7/16ths hole I had to drill usually took about 5 to 10 minutes. Depending on how new the bit was and how tired I was. I was drilling at chest height, with my elbows above my head, atop a ladder, it wore me out fast (not much downward leverage in that position). With the modified bit I had the holes drilled in a two or three minutes. Without much straining and with no resting; except to blow the chips out of the drill bushing in the hole locating fixture and apply cutting oil.
I still have this drill (11 years old now) and I never had to sharpen it, while I was working on these little parts. I have used it on wood, although I can't remember ever using it to drill end-grain, I am sure it will work much better than a standard drill would (less friction and better chip clearance). End grain is very tough to drill or turn on a lathe (usually on a wood lathe I'd drill a small hole to just under my finished depth and use scrapers instead of gouges to rout it out, though I'll start with a gouge untill the hole is too deep (these were round boxes with lids, not bowls)).
I hope this post wasn't too late; I just thought that it was a good tip to pass on, late or not, especially in loose tolerance operations (like knocking up quick jigs and spring compressors and drilling the occasional large hole in thick steel), although the bit did hold the +/- .001 dia. tolerance required (the locating pin was locktited in and usually had to tap it in with a piece of brass; it was tight fit).
I didn't read this whole post but I saw something about drilling stumps. Pouring plain old, heavy on the nitrogen, fertilizer works just as well as these so called stump removing concoctions. Rotting a stump is a long process either way. A backhoe works Great for removing stumps too, but last time I heard, dumping stumps at the local landfill cost $50 per foot in diameter (that was 16 years ago at a Golf Course). LOL
Good Luck, sorry I got carried away with too much information. That's the way I am though.
Roy
