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Re-drilling existing holes

WHW

Well-Known Member
Vendor Rep
Joined
Sep 13, 2017
Messages
398
Location
Louisiana
I felt the need to share this with others that use the drill & bolt system and drill the same tree more than once;

My first season with the drill & bolt system was 1983. But, it was only several years ago that I started using a cordless drill motor to pre-drill trees. I never considered using the cordless drill to re-drill a hole from the previous season. From experience I knew that it didn't work with the hand drill, and assumed that it also wouldn't work with the cordless. I just drilled a new hole near the other one.

I have no idea why it took me so long, but I finally decided to try re-drilling the existing grown over holes with the cordless drill on the first tree that I re-drilled for this season. I was surprised to see that it was much different than the hand drill, worked great, and took at least half the time.
 
I’m assuming that as long as you’re getting healthy looking wood out of the hilt it should be stable vs decayed wood.
 
I’m assuming that as long as you’re getting healthy looking wood out of the hilt it should be stable vs decayed wood.

Actually, once the bit gets past the outer crust the content is mushy. I believe the major difference is the bit speed of the cordless compared to the crank speed of the hand drill. Once the bit is bottomed out the hole is as stable as a first time drill. The only hiccup is the drill angle. If it's off of the original hole the bit will seize up. When that happened I simply reversed the direction to remove the bit and try again. It really wasn't a problem and a lot faster than drilling a fresh hole. It will now be my go-to method for re-drilling existing, grown over, holes.
 
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