On Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:52:09 GMT, The Medway Handyman wrote:

Cash wrote:
GMM wrote:
I need to send a (network, not power!) cable through a door frame.
The plan is to go through the plaster beside the frame (a couple of
inches before an adjoining door), at a bit of an angle to come out on
the edge of the architrave on the other side. The total depth of
this hole will be 200 - 250mm (well, 8 - 10 inches anyway) and most
of it will be through timber.
Soooooo....I was trying to find a drill long enough to get through
that lot. Plenty of masonry jobbies to be had, SDS or not, but
they're not very good on timber. The only things I can find are
extended flat bits (which might be tricky to get going at the angle I
need) and augur bits, which might be fine but really should be in a
brace and a) I haven't got one and b) I couldn't turn a brace in that
position.

Why doesn't anyone sell a standard HSS/spur/multipurpose bit this
kind of length? More importantly, what's the right way to do this?

Cheers

GMM,

You can get 'long series' suitable twist drills from reputable tool
suppliers long enough to do what you want, or you could just grind the
thread off the auger bit and stick it in an electric drill [1]
keeping a fairly heavy pressure on it as you drill the hole. (A bit
brutish, but this trick has often got me out of a bit of bother, and
I now keep a few of the common sizes (that have been adapted that
way) in the toolbox).

Why would you want to remove the thread off an auger bit? Just stick it in
a suitably powerful mains drill and it will go straight through. Plaster
might dull it a bit, but who cares?

[1] Just make sure that you get one without the tapered square on
the end - or if that is not possible, just cut the taper off.

Tapered square? WTF is that?

All my auger bits have a square tapered section for gripping in the two
jaws of a brace.

SteveW