Guess it don't matter the damn thing exploded on the drill press. I was trying to be careful. Slowly drilling. Back out every 1/8 inch or so. It shattered 1/4 inch from the end. Oh well.
Sorry to hear that but it is pretty common especially when drilling on a drill press.
Back in the olden days when I drilled on the drill press using a pen vice, I would do one of two things.
1. I would use a blank that I knew was longer than I needed and only drilled to within 1/2" or so from the bottom then would trim the length after the blank was drilled.
2. If I only had a certain length to work with, I would glue another sacrafice block to the bottom then drill to within 1/2" or so from the bottom.
If memory serves, most blanks shattered when there was nothing to support them and once the drill tip broke through the end, the sudden torqu would tear the blank up.