Boring wood on a Mill...?

I was able to hand sand to a good fit for the clamp. I normally use aluminum but I didn't want any bit of aluminum smeared on the black oxide layer of the chuck.
 
If the hole size was not critical for the 1/2in plywood I would use Forstner bit of closest size then an orbital spindle sander to sand to final dimension.

If only you lived close I could do this for you.

I have bored wood on the metal lathe, but solid wood and not a through hole. As others mentioned, the exit side would tear in plywood unless you did the sacrificial wood as mentioned.
 
To expand on the boring bit. Got me picking into my woodworking education and experience.

It could work. You'd need to be spinning as fast as your mill will allow. Grind the bit as thin and as sharp as you're capable with as much back rake as you can grind. Clamp sacrificial wood top and bottom so thats the wood where the hole enters and breaks through. And the plywood acts as if it's just part of the interior of a thick board.

But that wouldn't stop the boring but from chewing and tearing the fibers of the wood. That's where the back rake comes in. Metal can be sheared, but wood needs to be cut, like cutting cheese with a sharp knife rather than the edge of a spoon.
The sharper the edge and the thinner the edne, the better it will slice the chip off rather than pushing and burnishing. Wood won't burnish to a nice finish, it'll just tare.
Wood wants sharp and speed.

I'm sure that was ripe with bad grammar and spelling mistakes. Haha. I'm running on 3 hours sleep.

/End brain ramble.
 
I do not cut wood on my milling machine or metal lathe anymore. The saw dust can get into every little crevice on the machines. In my new shop my wood working stuff is in a separate room. And the abrasive machines are in there own room as well.
 
Before you bore the hole needed coat the existing hole with CA glue. Saturate it and let it dry. When you enlarge it now you will be cutting something much harder that the original plywood. The tearing will be nil to none. Have done this many times with great success.

"Billy G"
 
Cynoacrylate adhesive. Good idea Bill Gruby. What speed and size of hole did you bore using this idea? I imagine that you still need high speed.
I managed to get my dimension, but will try this the next time. T y!
 
All sizes up to 1.5 dia. Normal speed for mild steel. Does a great job for thread cutting in wood also. If you boring into wood again,ie. deeper than the CA, just coat it again. As far as the dust soaking up oil, it's not soft anymore so it won't.

"Billy G"
 
For boring a hole in wood this is the cutter you want.

Google wood working circle cutter.

Rockler tools $19.95
 
Yendor is right. I've cut lots of holes in wood, wood composites, and hard plastic using this little circle cutter on a drill press. It is unbalanced, so it has to run very slow. It sets up very easily and accurately with a dial caliper. The 2 ends of the cutter are ground to work inside and outside diameters. A backer board is essential as Bob K points out, but the knife edge point makes a very clean entry. If I was really worried about a brittle veneer, I'd put blue tape on the entry side.
circle cutter.jpg

All the tool holders in this drawer were made using this cutter. The blocks for the dial indicators and chucks are aspen plywood they make just over the border in da U. P. Any wood composite bonded with a thermosetting resin is going to abrade hss tools, but this is the easiest on edges I've worked with. The conical cradles for Morse taper tools are sugar pine.

tool drawer.jpg
 
CA glue does work to harden wood for threading etc, but it is expensive.

I just purchased some Minwax Wood Hardener to attempt to recover a wood bowl with punky end grain. It is much less expensive than CA glue. I do not know how long the shelf life is, but I do not get long shelf life from my CA glue. I have been told keeping CA glue in the freezer gives a longer shelf life, but I do not want the hassle of having to go upstairs to the freezer every time I want to use the CA glue.

Minwax wood hardener at Home Depot

The wood hardener is applied with a brush until it stops absorbing the product. Takes an hour or two to set up, so longer than CA glue.

Bowl_cherry_try_wood_hardener_for_soft_end_grain_8558.jpg
 
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