Acrylic Run Out

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Cory45

Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2014
Messages
14
Location
Springfield Ohio
I Have been having issues with drilling acrylic blanks on the lathe, I am using a Jacobs chuck and a PSI dedicated Pen Drilling Chuck. Wood comes out perfect but acrylic always has about 1/32 run out , ive tried 400 rpm up to 1200 rpm and New Drill bits also this just started happening started over a year ago no trouble till now
 
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TonyL

Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2014
Messages
8,904
Location
Georgia
A fellow turner had the same problem...but he was never able to drill a concentric hole on his lathe. He received a tailstock replacement from PSI (I found some play in it), tried higher end drill bits, etc. The problem was his new Jacobs chuck jaws. I have no idea if that is your issue...but this poor guy was going nuts for close to a year. I don't know what was wrong with the jaws, but I will ask him.
 

KenV

Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2005
Messages
4,720
Location
Juneau, Alaska.
Corey - by "runout" are you perhaps describing that the drilled hole is "oversized" by 1/32 inch in diameter.

If that is the case -- is your MT in the tailstock clean?? a small amount of debris or a burr would have that effect.

Have you dropped the drill chuck - MT adaper recently. The blow can make the friction connection drift off a bit. You check by putting the Drill Chuck - adapter in the head stock with a drill bit reversed (or a piece of drill rod) in the jaws and check the runout. Expect 0.005 or so on a budget drill chuck but if there is lots more than that amount, you will need to remount the drill chuck or tap it into better alignment.

Did you create a starter hole with a center bit or the point of a skew to assure the drill bit is centered at the start?

Are the bits really sharp -- some come from the package a bit on the dull side, especially the lower cost ones.
 
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