Recently, a customer who focuses on providing highly artistic wooden parts came to AutoDrill looking for a way to drill their semi-raw material in a unique way.  The process involves burnishing a hole through a wooden part with a wooden dowel-like drill mechanism.

The part being manufactured is not only artistic in nature, but highly functional as a tool. The end user will spend a good amount of time in close proximity to the product so quality and functionality are of top importance to the manufacturer.

Leaving any type of chips or clamp marks on the part is highly undesirable as their customers are extremely sensitive about the look and function of the part. By burnishing their way through the wooden part rather than using a typical drill “bit”, they create a number beneficial and highly important characteristics of the functional product.

One of those side effects is a fine lubricating wood dust that when combined with the proper thrust and RPM rates creates a unique finish on the product.  The finish that is generally desired is a burnt looking finish similar to lightly charred wood.

A small feature in the product also allows additional wood dust created by the burnishing process to collect outside of the burnished hole and serve a second and highly critical purpose later on.

The customer spent a week visiting AutoDrill headquarters investigating the different options that might be available to them and developing the custom solution. After all the hard work and engineering, a prototype unit was manufactured and the manufacturing team at AutoDrill sent it into the field for some beta testing.

Finally, a custom, non-marking, highly flexible and controllable clamping system was needed for the project.  AutoDrill’s team worked day and night during the final days of the project to develop this concept. When the concept was finally agreed upon, it was shared with the customer who was extremely pleased.

The entire system then went out for further testing. After this testing by selected end users, it turned out to work perfectly in most situations. The only challenge was when the wood parts varied in density and/or the moisture content of the surrounding area or the wood was too high to allow the burnishing technique to form the proper finish.

Below, you can see a photo of the finished product, including the AutoDrill Model 1 Bow Drill and a slightly used Jack brand foot clamp.

We hope your April is as successful as can be.  Happy April 1.

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