What drill for natural stone?

[booksat]

I saw a fabulous lamp in a store that was made from large stacked stones, and as I have plenty of attractive field stone and granite on my property I thought that I could try to construct my own.
The tricky part, of course, is drilling through the stone.
Doing some research, I found conflicting advice, but mostly found 3 types of drills mentioned: hammer drill, core drill, drill press.
Does anyone have advice or experience in what type of drill to use?

THANKS

[oldslowchevy]

drill press with a masonry bit and lots and lots of water to cool the bit/stone would be what i would try to do.

[jaco]

Just like oldslowchevy said. I'll add to it by suggesting not to use a hammer drill. If you don't have a drill press a conventional handheld will work.

[PLUMBER RICK]

depending on the size of hole, depth and required finish.

the wet diamond core drill is going to leave the nicest hole and drill pretty fast.

a roto hammer will be the crudest, but will be pretty cheap to drill.

rick.

[papadan]

You will only need a small hole (3/8-1/2) to put the lamp tube through. Handheld or drill press with masonry bit will do what you need. Any impact such as a hammer drill will break small stones in half before drilling through them. Keep the bit cool with water.

[booksat]

Thanks for the replies.
I think I'll try the drill press. But I have a foll-up question regarding the bit to use. I've already tried a hand-held with a masonry bit and got absolutely nowhere. Would a masonry bit work better on a drill press? Or could I use a diamond core bit on the drill press? The core drill sounds best, but seems just too expensive.

[PLUMBER RICK]

once again, how big of a hole and how thick is the material to be drilled?

i have diamond core bits from 1''-12''. some fit a grinder 5/8'' arbor and most fit a coring machine 1.25'' shaft. and a few fit a hand held drill for doing countertops. a few will work wet or dry. but wet is always better.

rick.

[booksat]

Rick, thanks much for the follow-up.

I haven't figure it all out yet, but I think that 1/2" should be sufficient and 1" would be fine if a little larger is easier. I was planning on running a small diameter pipe up the hole in which I'd run the wiring for the lamp. The pipe would also add strength. Ideally, I'd like to drill through up to about 8".

[ChongoBeast]

The romans used a chisel and mallet. Assuming you were going to cut many many holes a diamond segmented cutting bit with water. Water cleans, cools, keeps the dust down, prevents from recutting again. You can easily use them on a grinder 5/8 X 11 thread with a variable router speed control. Drilling is the easy part, polishing is what takes time. Also resin w/ hardener is the true secret. Remember to get a tube of dye also.

Good luck

Dave