Best way to hollow out a piece of bamboo?

Factual Questions
1

I have a 4 inch wide piece of bamboo that I want to run a hose through to make a fountain.

Does anyone one have some experience hollowing out the sections of the bamboo?

Thanks!

2

IIRC on Mythbusters they just used a long drill bit. Even if it’s 4 inches wide, to make a fountain you wouldn’t have to hollow it out all the way to the edges, just enough for the water to pass through. If you go to the electrical section at a big box hardware store (Home Depot/Lowes) you can get 4/6/8 foot long drill bits that should be wide enough to do the trick (I think I’d go with a one inch spade bit). I’d suggest putting the bamboo in a vice or clamping it down to something stable though so you can keep both hands on the drill.

3

kids who make bamboo cannons in asia (using kerosene) just thump the node partitions with a steel bar or pipe. they’re quite brittle and easily break up.

4

Cheating, but if it’s a really long section, I’d split it with a fine bandsaw blade, chisel out the node partitions, then glue it back together with polyurethane glue. You won’t see the join.

5

^
your method method is the only way when you need to turn the inside into a smooth tube. primitive cultures make blowguns from slim bamboo sections and they really have to split the entire length (splitting with a knife or wedge is better than sawing.)

for the OP’s needs, a drill or just smashing the partitions with a pipe would suffice.

6

Not electrical section - tool section. You can get an ordinary spade bit, and then a 1-foot extension. In fact, you can buy as many extensions as you want so as to drill an arbitrarily long hole. Spade bits are cheap, and so are the extensions.

On the downside, spade bits tend to create ragged, messy edges on the hole. If you want a tidier edge - or you want to make a bigger hole, say 2+ inches in diameter - buy a hole saw instead of a spade bit (link is to an expensive set, but individual hole saws can be purchased for less $). The extensions should still work with the hole saw.

7

Concur, if it’s a good straight bit of bamboo, and I have spare pieces on which to practice, otherwise, I’d split it with a bandsaw, because it’s more likely to go right first time (albeit for a marginally inferior end result)