In article ,
"Markndawoods" wrote:

I am needing to drill 30 - 36" into the end of a 1" dowel, with a half inch
bit. Built a jug, centering etc not an issue. What I am unfamiliar with is a
bit to go that deep. I tried starting with a standard 5" HSS and followed
with an electricians boring bit, but that just lost center an blew out the
side.

A quick search on google showed various places selling long bits, many
without the lead screw, which it turns out will cause tremendous damage in
end grain g. So I can locate a vendor, but wondering if someone might
already be buying form somewhere.

Does anybody have any experience with something like this? Perhaps someone
has a source they feel is reliable for such things?

Perhaps I am on my own!?

Were I faced with this problem, I would seriously consider routing a
semicircular groove down two strips and then gluing them together. If
the hole down the middle needs to be perfectly circular throughout,
pulling a reamer through afterwards to get it to correct size sounds
more likely to work well than pushing a drill down from the ends. If
it's only a bit at the two ends that needs to be precise, then making
the central portion of the groove a bit oversized would simplify things,
too.

Finishing the outside once the hole is in the inside is, of course, a
comparatively easy matter.

Just out of curiosity, what is the final application of this? A floor
or large table lamp?

--
Andrew Erickson

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot
lose." -- Jim Elliot