I am making Armenian duduks out of Apricot wood. and I need to drill/bore either a 29/64 hole or a 12mm hole down the center of the flute. I have one nearly completed, and I managed to use my wood lathe and a 12mm boring bit (with the center screw) to make the distance though, using a steady rest. However, it smoked and squealed a lot in doing that. One thing it was going too fast for how fast I could keep up in feeding the drill. I "was" using a Harbor Freight (Central Machinery) lathe with a small mini chuck on the head and a 1/2 drill chuck with #2 Morse tape on the tailstock to hold the boring bit. Slowest I could go was 750 rpm. I have since retured that lathe (have had about 2 weeks) back to HF as I figured if I upgraded later on, my chance of recovering what I have in it are slim. Now, within the first 30 days, where I get 100% of what I paid is probaby the best time for upgrading. I went with a Rikon 70-050VS (variable speed) lathe at the local Woodcraft store (now on order) since they had that on sale, it has a lowest speed of 300 RPM, and has #2 Morse tapers in head and tail.
My question is, could I use somehting like bees wax, or some sort of grease or lubricant to lubricte the drill bit as I drill, giving lubrication to the sides of the wood, lessening the smoke and and squealing? I also have a can of a dry lubricant, similar to Silicone I could spray in there intermittently to help lubricate the side of the hole.
Armenian Duduk, which I can't call Armenian, rather Duduk proudly crafted in U.S.A. (at least when "I" make them)
a-omo.jpg
With the double reed mouthpiece in place on the mouthpiece end. The end that has the mouthpiece is about 1.112" diameter in a sort of "bulbous" look, with a taper on the outside down the main part of the flute that is equally sized. Inside the moutpiece there is the hole,but here it is tapered to accomodate the tape of the reed mouthpiece. I found that a large hand reamer (tapered) on the headstock worked excellent and duplicates the master duduk I have exactly.
duduk2.jpg
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