This may well be hopeless.

Years ago I built a woodworkers mallet from oak with some lead wool for mass.
Worked fine for years, cracked a glue joint some weeks ago.

So I'm gonna just drill some holes thru the head and insert a couple
screws/nuts to hold the head together better. Attempt a pilot hole
with a 1/16" bit going thru about 2" of oak, etc. Drill bit freezes,
slips in chuck, won't come out. I kinda doubt it's the lead wool thats
holding it.

Tried a second pilot hole with a 3/32" bit. Same thing.

I tried using pliers, vise, etc to extract frozen bits. Nothin' shakin'.
Eventually they break off.

I could jerry-rig something to drill around the embedded bits, but I'd
rather extract 'em.

Anybody know a good trick for such?

Thx,
Will