Re: drilling thru steel
If you have a cutting torch, or even better a mixing handle with a brazing tip attached, Anneal the places you would like to drill.
From Wikipedia:
Annealing, in metallurgy and materials science, is a heat treatment wherein a material is altered, causing changes in its properties such as strength and hardness. It is a process that produces conditions by heating to above the recrystallization temperature and maintaining a suitable temperature, and then cooling. Annealing is used to induce ductility, soften material, relieve internal stresses, refine the structure by making it homogeneous, and improve cold working properties.
Do a "local heat". Which is to only heat the area you wish to machine (drilling is machining) and let it cool slowly. The old blacksmith way of annealing is to heat it, and then bury it in cool ashes so that is cools slowly. Once it cools it will be annealed and thereby softened allowing you to drill it with a decent drill bit.
Also, oil is used to lubricate a car engine, water is used to cool the engine. Oil is NOT used to drill holes, water is (or water based coolants). You do not want the drill bit lubricated and sliding across the stock. You want it to cut the stock, and stay cool while it is cutting so that it doesn't heat up, become annealed, lose it's hardness and is no longer a useful drill bit. See how all this ties together?