And not loose a finger? Oh now, where’s the fun in that? LOL. You do have an interesting problem though. Small metal beads would be hard to hold and control. Putting them on the drill press would be doable, but probably frustrating. You also might find that the chuck is too big to hold the drill bit.

My first thought was a bead reamer, but those are usually used for pearls and the like. I don’t know if they would work on metal beads or not. My other thought would be a miniature drill or pin vise. They are driven by hand so you don’t have to worry about the machine suddenly doing things you don’t want it to do and doing bad things a lot faster than you want it to do them.

Here’s one I found. It wasn’t the one I was thinking of, but it might well work.
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As for holding the bead, I think I’d head down to Harbor Freight Tools and pick up a small pair of cheap vise grips and some plastic dip. Dip the vise grip jaws a few times in the plastic dip to coat them and you can use them to hold the beads with out marring them.

If I find the other pin vise I was thinking of, I’ll edit this.

I use a Dremel. the different bits and attachments are inexpensive and valuble to me. I use it to drill fine porcelain, cryatal, glass etc with a diamond tip bit. The sanding accessories are great for tight furniture area as are the buffing heads. I would be lost without it. AND there are some for sale right here on Bonanza

The “Multi-TooL” by dremel works best for these type of changes

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How about using a wooden clothes pin the type with the spring and if you wrap the ends with a thick rubber band it might stop the bead from slipping or marring.

I have a dremel and purchased the drill press type stand for it. Makes it easier to drill straight holes. So as long as you can get something to hold the bead still you should be good to go.

Thank you for such great ideas, I will need to pick up a few more supplies and then try these. I do have a Dremel but haven’t made really good friends with it yet. I usually utilize the drill press in school for other drilling of holes in metals.

I appreciate all of your responses. Thanks team….

If it’s just a few beads, I would use my round needle file. Insert tip and turn a few times.

What kind of bead is it? If it is a glass bead you will need a diamond drill bit

I was thinking that you could hot glue the bead down on something—or use the wooden closthes pin method with the glue…when you’re done just peel off the glue. So, get aquainted with your Dremel, it’s a very useful tool.
cheers-Rav