"Bill" wrote in message
...
I am looking for a 5/16 drill bit, probably a brad point (it needs to
drill, with very little wander, through end grain of tamarind and ash),
with about 6" of flute (likely about 8" OAL) to let me insert a piece of
O-1 rod through a handle and into a rolling pin for reinforcement.

I turned a ~3/4" x 1" tenon on the handles and then grabbed a 3/4"
Forstener bit to make a hole in the end of the rolling pin. Add a little
dab of polyurethane glue and I should be golden.

Right?

Unfortunately, since leaving the machine trades, I've gotten careless in
my thinking. I didn't check the drill size. It is plainly marked 13/16".
So what was intended to have about .005" slop per side for glue allowance
ended up with ~0.030" slop per side ... clearly a poor fit.

So, I was able to line the handles up pretty well and get them glued in
place. The rolling pin (ash body with tamarind handles ... sorry, no pic,
my camera is kaputz)looks and feels really nice. As I was scraping the
excess glue off this morning, though, the thought occurred that inserting
the afore-mentioned metal pin would not only strengthen it so as to place
it into the 'future heirloom' category, but add a bit of pizzazz to its
appearance once the end of the rod was polished flush with the ends of the
handles

Thus this question: does anyone know where I can find extra length brad
point bits?

Without buying a new chuck AND a new drill, I cannot grip this
in my lathe and use a lamp auger. Besides which, "feels okay" and "truly
concentric" are not quite the same. I think that the actual misalignments
are probably best compensated for on the drill press. I have a wooden-jaw
v-block clamp that I can use to hang the rolling pin outboard by each
handle in turn. It is okay for the pin to be eccentric to the body as long
as it is (more or less) concentric to the handles and gripping the handles
in a v-block will let me set them up colinear to the drill bit.

If anyone has got better thinking on my proposed method of making these
holes, now would be a good time to speak up.

Thanks in advance,

Bill

PS .. I considered turning a plug and re-drilling, however, SWMBO is itchy
to do some baking today but needs a new tool first. Sound familiar? ;-)

====I've used D-bits for this. The are ideal for the job. I make my own
out of drill steel stock which you can buy in any diameter you need. A good
illustration of what you need to do is at:
http://www.bagpipeworld.co.uk/MakingBagpipes/Drill.htm

Leif