Man, thats impressive. Good for you, I would always get super annoyed when I slave away at bow drilling and it doesn't work out. Part of it had to do with the spindle getting launched. Somehow, it always seemed to go like this:

1: spindle slips
2: Super-hot end flies into my arm, burning me
3: Spindle ricochets off my arm and soars out of reach

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif" alt="" />

Once I got past those issues through, its a lot more fun. Another tip, which you may already be doing, is to start with cotton balls as tinder. Sure, its kinda cheating, but I find it helpful to break these things down into smaller evolutions. First, get it with cotton, then bump up to other stuff. I tuck my tinder underneath the fireboard itself, to eliminate the potential for loosing the coal as you transfer it to the tinder bundle. This way, the tinder builds up on the cotton and is already in place when its ready. Its takes some getting used to, but it helped me when I was getting started. Keep at it! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />