I had to drill some long holes for the plumbing the other day, so I unwrapped my heretofore unused Cully 18" Ship Auger (1 1/8" diameter). Strapped that baby to my Makita angle drill, and powered it up. The task at hand was drilling through a 2"x6" nailed to a 4" thick Versalam then through a Boise BC5000 engineered joist 3" behind. I wonder if Richard Berg or Mikael Brostrom have ever been behind the business end of this sort of drilling machine. Did I mention that the target was 9 1/2' off the floor.
So up the ladder I go with my two friends, Culley and Makita. I planted the bit, aimed it along the plumbing line and powered up. This bit chewed through the wood like a golden retriever going for a tennis ball. Within 20 seconds I was in clear air with wood chips everywhere. Mission accomplished. Did I forget to mention that if the bit hits something hard (like a nail) and binds up it will break your wrist(s). No broken wrist this time.
There was lots more overhead drilling that day, but mostly feeble targets like 2x6s and joists. Packed up for the day and headed home, feeling sort of proud of myself. Well by that evening I shoulders were a little sore, and by this morning I couldn't lift my arms above my shoulders. Fortunately Dr. Advil was in the room and we had a serious meeting: take 4 tablets three times a day and find something easier to do today. Looks like Sunday will be spent sweeping and cleaning up. More battles to fight next week. Drill Baby, Drill.
Next week: Yep, Gary Ellis built it and I'm boring holes in this house like a termite. Drilled through a series of 2x6 studs that sandwiched a 4x6 post and managed to get the drill firmly buried. Took about an hour to dig it out, but I got a hole all the way through it as shown in the second photo. Success comes slowly. Looks like an electricians job is about 1/2 drilling, 1/4 pulling wire, and 1/4 hooking it all up. I pulled my first wire on Monday; a series of four 240-volt lines for the garage using 10-2 wire. Also, Gary Estes (electrician) installed the meter and subpanels on Monday and I helped him pull 100 ft of No. 0 three-cable wire from the garage through the house an into the basement. The coil of wire weighed about 150 pounds and acted like an anaconda when we unrolled it. Yes, unroll or you're going to have a mess on your hands. We'll have a little tutorial on wire sizes later (gauge 0 is really big and 20 is really small, go figure).
