Drilling thousands of holes - recommendations needed!

[oakes3]

I'm making cribbage boards - some have nearly 500 1/8" holes.

I've had good luck with 1/8" spiral up-cut round-nosed 2-flute carbide bits cutting into pine, oak and maple.

As a bonus, I sometimes use them to carve out decoration too.

They are slowly getting dull and I'm wondering if anyone would recommend a different/better way of doing this?

I can't really complain at all - I've drilled maybe 50,000 holes with two bits so far - just exploring alternatives.

Thanks

David

[ger21]

How about a drill bit?

[oakes3]

Yeah - tried a couple of those - maybe I need to explore more but they didn't seem to do so good a job - they had more flex and wandering in the harder woods. One I tried snapped...
But then I just grabbed what I had lying around the shop...

And you can't really use them to carve with - but a bit change wouldn't be too much of a hassle.

Maybe if I got a tougher, shorter better quality drill bit more suitable for router CNC drilling.

Any suggestions?

[keebler303]

How deep are you drilling the holes? A stub length bit would be more rigid and a solid carbide bit would be even more so. A good place to start may be a good quality stub length cobalt drill bit.

Matt

[ger21]

Also, how slow can you spin them?

[oakes3]

I use a 1617EVSPK Bosch, 8-25k rpm, which I run at about half way, probably 15k, 8 would be the slowest.

I usually drill to 0.5", sometimes to 0.75". Tapered pegs that bottom out don't hold very securely.

How would a stub-length carbide drill bit differ from the currently used stub-length carbide round nosed bit?

Currently, there is a tiny rim around the finished holes straight off the machine, but a single finishing pass with an orbital sander with 220 grit paper leaves very clean holes.

I may have it just perfect with the current bits, but if it is, it is by random luck rather than experience. Thanks for the input so far.

[keebler303]

In wood, there probably isn't a big difference between a drill and an endmill/router bit but a drill is designed to drill, while an endmill is made to cut. Differences may include increased clearance on the drill for faster feeds as well as a faster helix to help eject chips from the hole, which will keep the bit cooler and make it last longer.

Matt

[oakes3]

Thanks Matt - that's a good point. I'm thinking of buying a couple of carbide stub-drills and seeing what difference they make.

[dlcw]

I cut 1/8" holes in cribbage boards made from maple, bubinga, purple heart, cherry and many other types of woods. I use a 1/8" boring bit from Amana. I run the spindle at 2500 rpm. I use a plunge speed of .75 ips and the holes turn out perfect every time. Boring bits are a wonderful thing.