Thread: Using old hand-brace auger bits in 3-jaw chuck?

Originally Posted by Gunnaduit

Rustynail, the same shop sells the Promac auger bits. But at 450mm long, I thought it might be prone to flexing. Why do you favour it?

I have several of them for long hole boring and have found them very good in both dry and green hardwood. Used a 1/2" to drill through a 16" wingrail on an old railway carriage. Looked like spotted gum and would have been at least 80 years old, no problem.
They are also popular with fencing contractors for post boring.
I have used the Erwins but wasnt that impressed. The open style fluting seems to clog easily.

Rustynail, ok, that's beaut. Thanks for that.

Ok, feedback as to use of power auger bit to drill thru my heavy hardwood.

I bought a 19mm Irwin auger bit, 300mm long, any longer and I wouldn't have been able to mount it under the pedestal drill over the work, and set up the workpiece clamped onto the pedestal drill table. Well, it didn't work. The auger bit would bite into the timber and pull the Jacobs chuck out of the quill taper. If I tried to feed the quill down fast to stop that, the auger would grab, but since everything was clamped hard, the drill just stalled.

So I had to get out the old brace and bit and drill by hand. Brace was made by 'J.A. Chapman, Stanley Works', and bit from Mathieson. I don't know much about tool forn. so I don't know if that is fantastic or commonplace. Anyhow despite my initial feeling that I'd make a mess of such long holes with hand tools to which I am not accustomed, it wasn't so bad to use after all.

I don't know which of the ancestors last sharpened the bit, maybe it was my dad 50 years ago or his grandfather 80 or 90 years ago but it was sharp and easy to control. Quickly realised that the hardwood bits are the ones without the cutting wings on the outer diameter, 'coz those wings stop the centre screw from engaging, that's the main point. Having a coarse pitch on the centre screw I thought ended up being an advantage, you need it to pull in aggressively when you are boring by hand.

I had to come in from both ends. I used a machinist's square to keep an eye on the drill for perpendicularity. One hole end-to-end I managed to drill without run-out error where the two half-holes met in the middle, the other end-to-end hole I messed up a bit because one half-hole I got slightly skew from a lapse of concentration. Not too bad after all though, I will get my threaded rod through ok, just wouldn't have got full marks from Mr Brown the woodwork teacher at school.

Since the bit was 5/8 and I needed a 3/4 or 19mm bore, I finished off by mounting the new 19mm Irwin bit in a big old geared hand drill and running it down the 5/8 bore. That worked but sometimes it grabbed so much I had to get a big shifting spanner onto the hex chucking end of the bit, to get leverage to turn the bit and break the grab before continuing with the hand drill. Anyway I got my 19mm bore down 360mm through that hardwood, but all by hand since the power tools didn't have the torque. But with all the grabbing, if the power tools had been powerful enough they would have been dangerous. So doing it by hand is the way to go.

Interesting job. I'll clean up all the ancestral hand auger bits now, and keep them good in case they get another airing this century or next.

Sounds like your drill was still to fast. When using augers the material has to be well held.

Yeah, pedestal drill was 190rpm, I also think that is too fast. Induction motor, single phase - gutless for torque, I think that is why it stalled once the bit got hold (if the chuck didn't simply get pulled from its MT1 taper).

But hold-down was not a problem, I was able to clamp the workpiece solidly to the drill table, by turning the drill table on its side so that I could clamp the whole side-face of the workpiece to the table with 4 Bessey clamps while drilling down end-to-end.

I don't know what equipment people are using for power augering, but it sure can't be a Chinese style pedestal drill.

PS by the time I had the pedestal drill set up for drilling (adjustments to all axes to ensure perpendicular holes - it was a pain because there's no micro-adjustment - you just have to clamp, mesaure, reclamp, remeasure, reclamp, remeasure for ages); well, I could have drilled those holes by bit-and-brace and have been finished in the time even just the pedestal drill setup took.

For heavy auger work a chainsaw with a drilling attachment. Another handy bit of gear is a heavy duty electric screw driver or ultra slow speed electric drill. A geared chuck can be used to slow things down a bit. Sorry, I didnt read your post closely enough to note you were intending to use a press.