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[lithicbeads]

 I purchased a couple of new bits for my water swivel drill at a rock show today so that I can get started on a few new projects. My water swivel attachment for my drill press is a few decades old and I was not sure if I would be able to purchase bits to fit it. I took the attachment to the show and was happy to find a match.
  The water swivel is placed  in the chuck of the drill press and a hose with water supply is attached to the swivel. The bit is threaded on the swivel and the swivel is tied to a non rotating part of the arrangement so that only the internal parts of the swivel and the bit rotate . A flow of water is started which flows through the swivel and the bit to cool the bit and wash the swarf out of the hole. I use a dish pan to catch the water and place a piece of wood in the dishpan on which the rock to be drilled is placed . I use a slow rotation and lift and lower the bit often to wash the swarf out of the hole and away from the cutting face of the bit. They are quite satisfying to use but the drilling can be very slow which is to be expected  as the actual cutting surface can be very large with a large diameter bit. A very nice tool soon to get a workout.

[Gergis]

Woah! Thats neally neat!

[MrsWTownsend]

Huh.  It would be cool to see this apparatus on it's do-hickey...   

[lithicbeads]

Do-hickey is doable.

[kenny]

I doubt this would have much use in drilling beads but as a side note, in the mining industry when core drilling they also use the water swivel, much larger of course. Their object of course is to recover the core of rock in order to sample and identify the strata's etc. In conjunction with the water swivel and bit there is an inner tube( for the core a retaining sleeve, and a core lifter. I doubt that these other parts would be needed for coring beads but thought it might be interesting here. The core lifter is particularly interesting.



I have heard people ask how do you get the core out of the hole if you're not drilling all the way through. This is the way they do it on the big rigs. When they are ready to retrive the core the driller lifts the bit a little ways off the bottom of the hole the core lifter is inside the bit and acts like the old Chinese figer basket and squeses tight around the core, he then reverses the rotation for a split second then throws it back to forward rotation and it breaks the core off at the bottom of the hole. I doubt that they make these for small bits but if they did they maybe useful in various occasions when drilling beads or candle holder etc. 

[lithicbeads]

They have " blind bits" for the holes you need a flat bottom. The blind bits grind all the material from the hole so they are very slow in comparison.

[ToTheSummit]

Thats a cool tool Frank.  I had to look at it for a few seconds to figure out what I was looking at, but once I understood I was like "Damn!  I want one of those!"
 

[lithicbeads]

They are a lot of fun to use but the cutting is so slow that to be practical you have to have  a task that is worthy of the time.

[Bentiron]

That's a cool gizmo, strange that on Monday I saw plans for a homemade one online(for drilling shallow wells).

[GoodEarth]

Hey Frank-

Do you have any of the blind bottom bits? I'm looking to core a couple of inches out of 2 basalt columns to epoxy some bolts into. I'm planning these to anchor the corners of my kitchen island... Haven't figured any other way to hole them...

[lithicbeads]

I have only seen them on line. My hammer drillthat I use for rock splitting will drill a rounded bottom hole. f clean it will hold epoxy well.

[GoodEarth]

Perhaps I'll call upon you for this if you are willing. Any thoughts about clamping the columns to keep them steady while drilling? They are going to be about 3' high.