Coring method/s

j2pac

j2pac

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Is there another way of effectively coring a piece of wood that I intend to have used as the handle section in a wrapless Cue, besides using a gun drill. I tried using the search feature on this one, but I really didn't find the answer I was looking for in there. At any rate, just wondering about other possible methods.
Regards.
 
I can't think of any that would be as accurate or efficient as a gun drill in something as long as a handle.
If you are not set up to do this, and don't think you can justify doing so, perhaps you could send the piece out to someone that could bore it for you.
You could segment the handle with some rings inbetween the segments, and a regular boring bar would suffice.
 
Thank you.

Sheldon said:
I can't think of any that would be as accurate or efficient as a gun drill in something as long as a handle.
If you are not set up to do this, and don't think you can justify doing so, perhaps you could send the piece out to someone that could bore it for you.
You could segment the handle with some rings inbetween the segments, and a regular boring bar would suffice.
Click to expand...
Will probably end up using the gun drill. Thought about the segmenting thing, but I'm not a big fan of the look, and the handle wood in question is just to nice a piece of curly/tiger maple to do that to. Maybe the nicest piece I've ever seen!
But thank you for the advice.
 
You can get a MT tapered drill that goes at least 7 inches deep and drill each end.
 
Home depot and such places sell a long boring drill bit, made by Greenlee for electricians for boring between joists and such. It's in the electrical supplies dept., not the tool section. They run in a number of lengths up to around 2.5 to 3 feet. I have no clue as to how perfectly straight the hole would be as I've never used one. I've been using a gun drill for about 10 years and bore nearly all of my cues. The gun drills aren't very expensive by the way.

Dick
 
rhncue said:
Home depot and such places sell a long boring drill bit, made by Greenlee for electricians for boring between joists and such. It's in the electrical supplies dept., not the tool section. They run in a number of lengths up to around 2.5 to 3 feet. I have no clue as to how perfectly straight the hole would be as I've never used one. I've been using a gun drill for about 10 years and bore nearly all of my cues. The gun drills aren't very expensive by the way.

Dick
Click to expand...

Although I have never used the drills Dick is referring to on cues, I have used them on telephone poles back in my old CATV days. They are a very aggressive type of drill and I'm not sure they would work out to well on the hard exotics we like to use. Not saying they won't work, but IMHO I won't attempted it based on my other experiences with them.
Joey's idea is some what close to what I have done though.
The piece of wood is drilled at both ends and then I used a boring bar from both ends also. My cores, when I use them, are a step core, .630 on one end and .750 on the other for the fores. Handles are usually a straight .750 -.875 core depending on the type of woods used.
I start the drilled hole with an MT drill on both ends but switch over to a brad point drill for the center of the piece of wood because it has a bit more aggressive angle for clearing chips and doesn't seem to create as much heat which is not a good thing when coring.

By far not as fast or efficient as using a gun drill but I don't core many of my cues so it works for me.
 
I've centerdrilled, drilled all the way through with undersized auger or speedbore bit, then came in from both sides with a little larger drill bit, then used a 6" boring bar from both sides to get My final ID. I just had enough to bore a forearm, and luckily the middle of the bore lined up well, but that lenth was pushing It close even for a forearm, and probably not enough to bore a handle unless done in sections as someone already mentioned. A gun drill is the way to go, and gives you alot more options.;)


Greg
 
rhncue said:
Home depot and such places sell a long boring drill bit, made by Greenlee for electricians for boring between joists and such. It's in the electrical supplies dept., not the tool section. They run in a number of lengths up to around 2.5 to 3 feet. I have no clue as to how perfectly straight the hole would be as I've never used one. I've been using a gun drill for about 10 years and bore nearly all of my cues. The gun drills aren't very expensive by the way.

Dick
Click to expand...



The drill I used I got from homedepot. It was a 5/16 drill that's just under 18" long made by Irwin, and is called a speedbor. It walked alittle on me though, but being a smaller diameter I had the room to clean up the bore by the time I got to the final diameter. As I mentioned It was only a 5/16 drill though, so It may not be as ridgid, and may flex alittle more then one of the larger ones, but It made me a pilot hole all the way through from one side to the other.

Greg
 
I haven't tried it myself but there's an IRWIN extra-long drill bits from Lowes.

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=171004-281-88710&lpage=none

If you can make some sort of drill guide that will fit in your steady rest for stability, it might work. I got this images from this thread.

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=84526&highlight=drill+guide

002-2.jpg


001-2.jpg
 
rhncue said:
Home depot and such places sell a long boring drill bit, made by Greenlee for electricians for boring between joists and such. It's in the electrical supplies dept., not the tool section. They run in a number of lengths up to around 2.5 to 3 feet. I have no clue as to how perfectly straight the hole would be as I've never used one. I've been using a gun drill for about 10 years and bore nearly all of my cues. The gun drills aren't very expensive by the way.

Dick
Click to expand...
I have used those augger bits and they work okay. Okay is the key. Gun drills are great, Augger bits are just okay. They don't drill all that straight and you need a lot of power and slow speed. Forstner bits with extension work a little better with a little less effort, but I put them in the Okay category also. Gun drills are the way to go especally if drilling exotics that are prone to cracking if gotten hot. The air flowing through the gun drill and removing chips are a life save. Ruin just a few exotics with one of the other bits and you could have bought a gun drill.
 
I like the collet and Spade (flat) bit idea! I'm assuming if using this method to core, it would be best to use the 1/4" collet, right?

This could save a lot of time and be more accurate!
Zim
 
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