I've hand drilled hundreds with a non centering plug cutter. It works fine. You make the plugs long anyway so tear out at the beginning isn't an issue. With a t

I've hand drilled hundreds with a non centering plug cutter. It works fine. You make the plugs long anyway so tear out at the beginning isn't an issue. With a tapered cutter the starting surface is going into the hole so it doesn't have to look good either. The main tedium is when they get dull it becomes a bear to force them into the wood.