This is the second Vermont-American plug cutter I have purchased. The first one got over-heated and lost it "temper." I suggest you use a drill press set on slow speed (about 600 rpm) and avoid forcing the tool into the wood. Take it slow. If you see smoke when you drill you are being too aggressive for this tool. Today I finished making the last of about 300 plugs for a flooring job. The first few rows and the last few rows in a wood floor require either screws (drill 3/8" holes with a Forstner bit about 1/2 the thickness of the flooring), drive the decking screws, and glue the plugs (dowels) into pace. The other (more popular approach) is using a pneumatic brad driver (15 or 16 guage brads). I prefer using dowels and screws. You can place the dowels so that they are perpendicular to the grain of the wood flooring to make the dowels "stand out." I prefer placing the dowels so that their grain is going the same direction as the wood. Make your dowels a little longer than the hole you drill in the flooring. Once you have a bunch of dowel plugs drilled, mark the plugs (draw a line) in the direction of the wood grain. It is hard to see the orientation of the grain unless you do this step. I use "Titebond III" wood glue but other types should work as well. Take each dowel, put some glue on it with your fingers and put the dowels into the holes marked side down. You need to gently hammer each plug into place. After the glue has set overnight, I cut off the plug stubs a little above floor level using a flat bladed oscillating tool. This same task used to be done using a very sharp chisel many years ago. Next, a take a power sander and rough-sand the plugs to floor level. This step makes it easier to do a good job of finish sanding using the floor sander. -- Good luck!