Dear Dave,

Sounds like you're doing something wrong.

Usual method is to solder the fitting closed, file it flat then drill it out.
When soldering the interior of a brass fitting it was SOP to soot the surface
so the solder would NOT stick... then brighten up a ring of metal right at the
opening using steel wool on a toothpick or whatever, solder the thing on its
side, rolling it over or whatever to get a 'plug' of solder. Pre-heat with a
torch but the soldering was usually done with a prepperly dressed & tinned
copper or big electric iron.

I can't imagine what the problem might be with the drilling, other than failure
to clear the hole. Drilling solder with a small bit typically generates enough
heat to cause the solder to flow, so you have to use a coolant/lubricant and
take shallow cuts, retracting the bit and freeing it of swarf as the hole
progresses.

Small hole in a solder plug, I think most machinists would cut the thing with a
watchmaker's broach.

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Other methods of making primer nozzles:

Using a round-nose straking punch, peen the edges of the opening in a regular
brass fitting so as to reduce it's diameter. For 1/8" fittings this method can
be used to completely close the opening, after which it may be drilled or
reamed. (Typical reamer used here is a tapered three-sided, hollow-ground
clock-makers reamer... about as big as a kitchen match and sharp as a needle.)

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Using annealed copper tubing, crush the end flat with a needle or wire in
place. Pull out the needle, there's your hole.

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Starting with thin brass sheet, well polished, use a punch to produce 'coins'
sized to match the end of the fitting. Solder to the fitting. Drill or ream
to the required size. Some prefer to tin the brass sheet first. If the end of
the fitting has been filed flat and tinned, with a bit of flux it takes only a
modest amount of heat to sweat them together.

-R.S.Hoover