drilling dead centre, help wanted

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Jimbo.

Member
Joined
Feb 14, 2013
Messages
9
Location
England
Hi all, I was wondering what I would need to do to drill a hole right through the centre of a blank, I have made a 360 herringbone blank and rough turned it to about 30mm round now I'm stuck, I haven't got a drill chuck but am willing to get one but not sure what one I need,

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This is is my lathe
 

Hendu3270

Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2012
Messages
919
Location
Pearland, Texas
Hey there Jim. Welcome to the forum!!

You're gonna need a chuck to hold your blank. Could be a four jaw chuck, a collet chuck or a chuck designed specifically to hold pen blanks and/or bottle stoppers. And then you'll need the drill chuck mounted in your tail stock. All of this can be found at some of the vendors here or at Rockler, Woodcraft, PSI, etc.
 

its_virgil

Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2004
Messages
8,101
Location
Wichita Falls, TX, USA.
We have a wonderful library here on IAP. Should I tell you the answer to your question or should I have you look for it? The library should be required reading for all new members. I will help you out on your question. The most accurate way to drill is to drill on the lathe. The best way to hold a pen blank for dead center drilling is with a collet chuck. Check out this library article.
http://content.penturners.org/library/techniques/lathedrilling.pdf

Do a good turn daily!
Don
 

skiprat

Passed Away Mar 22, 2022
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Oct 19, 2006
Messages
7,812
Location
In a Skip in Wales
Hi Jim, welcome to IAP.
I think that which ever blank holding method you now choose to buy is perhaps a little irrelavent. Particularly for this blank that you have already made and rounded.
You built and assembled a HB 360 which generates it's own centre as you build it. I'm assuming you then trimmed the blank to size and then chose a new point on either end to become the new centres in order to turn it round.
Now that it is round you will now use the outside surface as the reference point to determine the drilling centre.
Whichever method you now choose cannot guarentee it will be in the centre of the pattern.

Depending on your budget and tooling that you already have should help you decide which route to take.

Do you have a drill press? If so, the cheapest method would be to buy a centre square and a blank drilling vice. ( The Hoffman vice is the Rolls Royce )

Got some money? Buy a 4 jaw scroll chuck for your lathe headstock and a 13mm keyed chuck with Morse taper for your tailstock.

Got loads of money? Buy a collet chuck and full set of collets as well as the drill chuck.

I have a collet chuck for my metal lathe but hardly use it. I wouldn't buy one for a wood lathe as most blanks are square to start with. :wink:

Have fun:biggrin:
 
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