Tonight I screwed up two expensive fly rod handles (the fancy ones with colored wooden hosels) trying to enlarge the the center hole. On both handles the hosels split when I was trying to drill them out with a drill or a rat tail file.

Any ideas on how to successfully elarge the center hole would be greatfully appreciated.


Jerry Guinn

Hi Sir if this reel seat handle is for a graphite rod ask the builder if he could do a larger bore most are made and some with very little room to enlarge the bore and stabilized wood reel seats are very hard unless you have a good round holding vise and then just step up through the sizes till you reach the size bore you need if you try to take to much at one time they most offen will brake on you if for a cane rod best to work the cane shaft down to fit the bore just do not leave a sharp sholder were you stop but taper up under the cork grip God Bless Jeff Rhonda and Kaya

if you use a rat tail in a drill , you have to run the drill in reverse and go slow do not over heat or the wood will pop.

This won't help now, but in the future, boring an insert requires a nice, sharp bit and it must be withdrawn every every inch or so in order to clear the chips and allow the insert to cool. When you just bore away, the flutes of the bit can and usually do clog with wood chips/resin and the result is usually overheating of the insert and popping or splitting as you've found.

............

Gerald, one other option is use a forstner or brad point bit. They have no taper at the point, and because of the flat bottom of the bit, it will not cause the fine trim or thin wood to split. The problem with using a forstner or brad point bit is there is no way to center the bit to start it when you use a mandrel. I have resolved that problem by using a Uni-Bit to drill a starter hole the size of the bit, that will allow you to use the outside of the forstner bit to stabilize and keep it from wandering as you drill with it. Since I have switched to the brad point, and forstner bits I haven't had a blow out or breakage.

Thanks for the tips. My prblem pertains to FLY ROD HANDLES (cork with stablized wood hostels at each end) not reel seats. I have tried some of these tips, specifically running a rat tail file backwards. I'll try some of the others on the one handle I haven't yet wrecked.

Jerry Guinn

Sharp brad point bit should do the job but it must have a slow feed into the stabilised wood .
If you are only skimming the ID you should not have any swarf clearing problems ( with luck ).
The lack of a centre to guide the bradpoint drill bit can be handled as indicated by Mark B. The way I prefer is to turn down some scrap hard wood as a mandrel with a small centering hole to suit the tip of the brad point to fit neatly with some resistance to moving ( but able to move under pressure) and use this to stabilise & center the bradpoint. I find this a bit more work but more reliable than using an OD pilot hole to center the bradpoint.
Slow feed of the drill into the job is the key & keeping the job stabilised well so it cannot move and inadvertently get a "bite" on the stabilised wood. splitting is almost inevitable if it does.
Going super slow as you reach the exit of the hole is useful to avoid any tearing of the last bit of the exit hole.
Remember that a bradpoint drill will be cutting the edges of its hole before the bulk is removed from the center so the end often comes quicker than you expect as you are looking at hole depth from the end you are drilling from.
If you have had 2 disasters its time for belts & braces and a lot of extra care.
DenisB

What kind and what size of lathe do you have Gerald?
Do you have a through hole in the spindle? If so what size?

Ray

Ray Cover
My Projects Blog
[raycover.blogspot.com]

I forgot to ask.

If you lathe is one of the mini lathes do you have a steady rest for it?

Ray

Thanks. This may be the ticket. I'll give it a try.

Jerry Guinn