While we aren’t heavy-duty woodworkers, we occasionally make some sawdust as part of a project, and we admire people who know how to make wood and do what they want. We were surprised when [Newton Makes] showed a wooden dowel that was quite long and was mostly hollow. The wall was thin, the hole was perfectly centered, and he claimed he did not use a drill to produce it. Check it out in the video below and see what you think.
We don’t want to spoil the surprise, but we can tell you that making something that long with a drill or even a drill press would be very difficult. The problem is that drills have runout — the bits are usually not totally centered, so the bit doesn’t spin like you think it does. Instead, it spins and rotates around a small circle.
At the chuck, that small circle isn’t a big deal. But the further you get from the chuck, the bigger the runout circle gets. So a 10 cm long drill bit won’t amplify the runout much, but a 100 cm bit will make more of a cone shape unless the drill press is very accurate.
Take your guess, go watch the video, then come back and tell us if you guessed correctly. We didn’t. If you want to get better at woodworking, we can help. If you get really good, you can bend wood to your will.
Gluing two halves together hardly counts as “Drilling holes”. But clickbait titles aside it will functionally be very strong.
Indeed. Just skip to 04:30.
I come here to read a summary of interesting things, not as a redirect to go watch a video somewhere else. Thank you for summarizing how it works better than the click-bait article above.
Nope, guessed wrong.
I thought the grain looked a little diagonal, and my guess was that it was a thin strip steam formed and rolled on a rod diagonally then glued.
Eh, I guessed a lathe, because it’s “not a drill”. This works, neat trick, but presumably compromises the strength on what’s already quite a weak piece?
For side grain, the glued joint can be stronger than the base wood itself.
aka, how pencils are made
My 3d printing brain kicked in and my first guess (if it’s not drilled or lathed) was split it in half.
It’s an interesting way of looking at a problem and any new approach or perspective is good, especially if it’s something that can add to your physical or mental (or emotional/behavioural) toolkit.
Nice work, but almost cheating :-) I thought it would be some drill suspended in a magnetic field..
The last pass would be sort of interesting as there was no flat.
Yes, typically you would leave the ends square and then cut them off at the end. It appears that he did not do that.
You still have 2 half-flat sides on the last pass, more than enough to support the workpiece.
Didn’t watch the video, but sounds like a molding cutter and wood glue got the job done.
Would come out a might charred, but it seems like a laser ought to (eventually) cut a tube like this, assuming the focus can be moved that much, (or doesn’t need to move at all because it’s a perfect beam.)
Disappointed. Nice workaround but thats it. Not as precise as I was hoping for
How precise are you expecting to get, with wood? Will the piece you make be of the same dimensions tomorrow, when it rains?
You can treat the wood to reduce the effects of moisture. Dry it first and saturate with wax dissolved in mineral oil to fill the pores. Helps with the drilling too.
This is not a tube, it’s a space station!
The problem when trying to drill a hole into wood isn’t so much the run-out as it is the wood grain, which has areas of varying hardness that tend to push the drill bit around. With a stiff drill bit and a firmly clamped work piece, this usually isn’t an issue. When a drill bit is long and skinny, though, it’s going to have some flex and let itself get pushed around some.
There is a bit called a gun drill that has a round shank and a single long flute. It fits closely in the hole you’re drilling so it doesn’t wobble. The next bit of technique is to use an oversized blank and then turn the outside concentric to the hole.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XItbHJ4p34
thanks, learned a new tool.