A few days ago, I got a drill bit stuck in the tree, while working on the treehouse project.
It took me a lot of time and tedious effort to get it out. I tried chisels, vice grips, and finally, I used a smaller drill bit at an angle, around the edges of the stuck drill bit, to dig it out of the tree.
Then I completed the hole and installed the giant lag bolt, so I could hang two cables from it instead of wrapping the suspension cables around the tree, as had been my original plan. I decided to change that plan for two reasons: 1) several people felt I might “strangle” the tree over time with wrapped cables, and insisted it was less damaging to the tree to just put a big hole in it; 2) it was quite difficult to adjust the tension with the tree-wrapped method, because the cable might slip in small increments along the trunk of the tree.
Here is the stuck drill bit. It was really buried in there and wouldn’t even wiggle.
Here is the liberated hole.
Here is the giant lag bolt going in.
Here is the final configuration, with the two cables down to the corners.
Indeed, I am pleased with the new result. The cables have good, even tension and are easy to adjust.
Now I have to do the other tree.
