the wood in question is "briar". it's a burl that grow underground and is
very hard.
the briar in question is used to make smoking pipesenglish pipesand some
designs require to have a curved airhole due to the bent shank.
with a straight pipea billiard there is no problem with drilling a
straight hole, but when it comes to an acute bend pipe, then it calls for
drift bits and curved drilling.
and i'll be damned if i know how it's done by some large factories.
cheers
"Brian Lawson" wrote in message
...
Hey Grace,.

Hmmmm... just a thought, but can you sand-blast wood? Maybe use a
curved "pipe" to do it?

You didn't give much explanation as to wood, sizes, distance, amount
of curvature desired, etc. Many woods can be steamed and bent to a
semi-permanent form. Choice would then be whether to drill a hole and
then bend the wood; or to bend the wood, drill a hole, and then
straighten the piece back.

Take care.

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.
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On 31 Jul 2003 13:38:18 -0700, jim rozen
wrote:

In article hTdWa.30882$uu5.3543@sccrnsc04, "Grace says...

james,
i wish to use it on wood. would it be possible to drill a slight curve
with
an EDM?

Electrical discharge machining requires a conductive
workpiece. Wood does not qualify.

If you needed a curved hole in a block of wood, I would
suggest to cut the block in half, profile the curved
hole in both surfaces with a ball-nosed end mill, and
the glue the two halves back together.

Jim

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