How to drill a hole in a overhead feature beam?

Zippo01

Hi Members, I have a cathedral ceiling in the games room of my house, I wish to add extra lighting by way of two hanging pendant lights. One at each end of the beam. The beam is large measuring 38cm in depth(height) by 8cm in width.  I need to drill a 10mm hole using a electric hand held drill, standing under the beam and drilling overhead. I purchased what I believe to be the correct drilling auger bit, but how am I to drill precisely 38 cm directly through the beam without drilling askew and ruining the beam?  The beam already has a lighted ceiling fan at the midpoint of the beam .I want to feed the wires up through the beam hiding them along the top  edge of the beam and using the existing fan for  the electrical connection. I have attached an image of the beam. Any help or ideas would be much appreciated. Cheers Greg

Dave-1

Good Evening @Zippo01 

I have had the same sort of issue when I was drilling posts for my privacy screen, There is an easy way to do it 🙂

First lay your hands on a piece of timber the same width as your beam (8cm) Maybe an old fence post or something along those lines.

Then drill through the center of it where you want the hole to be in your beam (as if the spare piece of wood is sitting against the beam.

Now source a fence pailing or a pice of timber that is thin but wide. Cut it at around the 36cm mark. Make two of them

Screw these two pieces either side of your spare "block with hole" making sure the screws doint go through your drilled hole.

This is your "Jig" that will slip under the beam, the predrilled hole will be straight and will keep the drill bit straight as you drill up through your beam. Once you have sunk the drill as far as it will go, remove the jig and continue as the hole will now hold the drill in place. Take your time, no need to force the drill bit as it will want to eat away at the hole. Remove the drill bit freaquently from the hole so the chafe can come out also. It stops the drill bit getting too hot.

Please wear saftey goggles, take it from me a piece of sawdust is faster then a blink and hurts! Make sure they are the ones that seal against your face as you will be drilling upwards. Also make sure what you are standing on is solid and gives your body height to about your shoulder height level with the bottom of your beam. Lats one is to watch out for grabbing. The drill will want to catch and twist the body of the drill around, that also hurts. 

I was looking for my decking projects for the jig picture (think large upside down U) but couldnt find one. If you cant picture it I can draw a pic for you.

Dave