So far things are going pretty good. The first thing I did was use a 5/16" carbide end mill to remove the existing center drill that was on both ends of the cam. Now that left me with a flat bottom so the next thing I did was use a #3 center drill to give me a starting point for my drill. The reason I didn't use the existing center drilled spot is because 'all of the exterior' of the cam is hardened. The last thing I wanted or needed was my drill to break trying to get through this hardened area.

I drilled as far as I could with my first drill and now I'm getting ready to use the 10" one. And as expected, I had to keep some pressure on the drill as I went. This was the easy part because I was able to use the quill on my machine the way it was designed, pull the handle down and drill a small amount, push the handle up and clear the chips, dab some cutting oil on the drill and repeat. But from this point forward things are going to change because I'm out of travel on my quill. So how am I going to drill through? 
 

As you can see, the drill is well below the surface of my tooling and the quill is at the top. This is what it looked like just before I started drilling because I had to hold the cam in one hand, insert the longer drill into the hole that I previously drilled, placed the camshaft just above the surface of my tooling, tightened down the two bolts, and then drilled for about 10 to 15 seconds.
 

At that point I stopped the machine, loosened the two clamp bolts, slid the cam down over the drill by twisting and turning, along with pulling downward until the drill came out. Then I would turn the cam over, use my air hose to blow out any chips from the hole and from the drill, tap the cam on the rubber floor mat to make sure everything came out, dab a little cutting oil on the drill, and repeat the process that you just read from above to drill for another 10 to 15 seconds.

Along the way I ran into some hard spots that I thought I'd never get through because I did have some work hardening happen to me or there were just hard areas. And this happened twice! Now when a drill makes all these crunching and screeching noises, it's those moments that you wonder if you'll be able to save it or not, because this is never what you want to hear.

The way you get through a hard spot like this is to pull down on the quill handle, with both hands, hoping that the drill doesn't brake as it makes it way past the hard spot. You can use a jerking motion as you pull to help you, which is what I did. However, doing this can cause another problem because as you break through the hard spot, you suddenly get into the softer area again and with that much down pressure, the drill wants to take a huge bite of material, which is when drills break. It's a catch 22 deal but it's your only option.
 

After hours of drilling, sweating and resharping the drill many times, I was able to drill through my camshaft. This was far from easy but I made it. And it drilled very straight as you can see. I had a small step of about .015" where the two drilled holes met in the center. This worked out really well and I'm happy with the results.
 

The Base

This is what I'll be using for the base. I acquired this gear from my daughter Tracey, who works at a motorcycle shop. She told me that it came out of a Polaris Razor 1000 Turbo transmission and is the main output gear. And it's perfect for what I'm doing. Little does my daughter know, but this lamp will be for her.
 

I thought about machining away this short end altogether so I'd have a nice flat surface to set it on, but this gear happens to be just as hard as my camshaft. And I'm pretty sure it's made out of the same material and is case hardened.
 

This is the longer end and I plan on attaching the came here somehow. And as you can see, it would look great if the bottom portion were gone so I guess I'll have to figure out something else.