Bow drill fire, pretty tough task

I applaud your efforts .
Patience comes with experience and the knowledge that what your doing will work given time.
My first bow drill fires seemed to take forever , then I realized that the drill and hearth were not for fire itself but purely for making the embers , tinder and fat wood are for combustion they have the gas it takes to light up . Char cloth might be nice to have in these situations.
In stead of doing a notch on the side of the hearth I do a hole about where I expect the drill to begin making a coal . works quite well, even had a coal established on the drill it's self, using Poplar .
Keep in mind some here use weeds and reeds as hand drills for making that coal.