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For what it's worth, I've been through the ball rasps of various sizes and types in my drill press, the rounded off spade bits, countersink bits of several types, and all sorts of router bits.
I've taken off nearly every knuckle I have at least once!!
What I use now is simply a Forstner bit. It gives me flat-"bottomed" holes, but they're perfrect otherwise, and easy--takes about 5 seconds to do a plug. I just hold the plug vertical on the drill press plate and zap it and it's done.
On the flat bottom hole issue, I figured that it gives me a larger-volume hole that'll throw more water, and thus produce a bigger splash. And it's all about making noise on the surface.
When I take the plug out of the lathe, the next step is the nose hole on the poppers. After the hole is done, I cut off the end at 15 degrees on the mitre saw and, voila, it's off to the paint booth.
A few years back I bought a set of 8 Forstners at Woodworkers for about $25, that run from 1/4" up to 1", and they still work great. The middle sizes get the most use. They're perfect for eye holes, too.
Only problem with this is that, at first, I made a bunch of plugs with the holes too deep. When I got them done and went to use one, it took forever to get the damned leader down to the wire loop that was about 3/8" down into the hole. It was cold as hell. So I sanded 3/16' or so off those few plugs, touched them up with some paint and envirotex, and fed them to fish.
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