Those pics put it in perspective for me.
That's a lot of holes in fairly thick material.
It can be done with a drill, but damn that would suck.
I know you already tried a Mag Drill and I have never used one, but I'm wondering if you had it in reverse. only getting through 3/4 hole makes me suspicious.
Believe it or not this has happened to me.
True story: I was drilling a hole with an air powered drill, and I was pushing and pushing on the drill as hard as I could and it's smoking like a bitch, and I'm pouring cutting fluid on it and it's smoking up the whole shop. My buddy walks by and watchs me for about 5 minutes. I decide to change out the bit and the same thing happens.
Now sweat is rolling down my a$$ crack cause it's 95 degrees out with 99% humidity...... and I'm smoking up the whole shop with my new bit, figuring this is some special "super hardened" steel ..........Just as I go to change out the bit for the third time, my buddy smiles and says "hey dumb-fu@k..... you're in reverse"
30 years later and he still tells that damn story every time we throw a few back.