Which bit to drill 1.5" diameter holes in wood?

[Squisher]

A spade bit would work BUT, you are going to need to back up every cut with a piece of wood underneath and a guide block on top wouldn't hurt. . I will say that I do 90% of my drilling with spade bits, they are the sledge hammers of the drilling world. But, then again 90% of my drilling isn't in furniture. They make fast work of everything, but tearing wood going in and coming out is a real possibility.

 

[sonambulo]

I'm going to assume you've accounted for lateral shifting so your shelves won't wobble and fall over.

Naturally. The final form will have lateral (more aluminum yay) braces on the very top and very bottom. The plan for now is to have casters inserted into the aluminum uprights buuuuut now that think about it I may make the bottom shelf into a solid plank and bolt the casters right into that. I'm not planning on putting too much on these shelves. TV, handful of toys, a couple hundred video games, and the two bottom shelves will be books.

 

[Howard]

Is 32 a lot? I'm leaning pretty heavily towards the forstner at this point.

PROS:
Clean holes
Looks cool
Gives me an excuse to buy a drill guide

CONS:
Hard to spell

Seriously, thanks for all the input everyone. However if I'm going to have to clean out the holesaw that many times it's going to get annoying. In regards to the bit burning out I'll be cautious but put some money towards a higher quality bit just to be sure.

The bit won't burn, the wood will from the friction.

 

[911paramedic]

Is 32 a lot? I'm leaning pretty heavily towards the forstner at this point.

PROS:
Clean holes
Looks cool
Gives me an excuse to buy a drill guide

CONS:
Hard to spell

Seriously, thanks for all the input everyone. However if I'm going to have to clean out the holesaw that many times it's going to get annoying. In regards to the bit burning out I'll be cautious but put some money towards a higher quality bit just to be sure.

I had to go look up the forstner to see what you were talking about, yup, I have some of those and they are great. There is a major problem with them though, they cut for shit if they aren't really sharp. If you are drilling 32 holes the last, uhhhh, 20 are going to suck.

This doesn't sound like a precision job or anything like that, a hole saw will be just fine. Make sure you clean out the plugs after each hole though, seriously.

(I also like the spade bits but those need to be really sharp like the forstner bits to be effective.)

 

[Oil]

I would use a PDC bit