Drilling on lathe

[neon007]

I plan to start using my lathe to drill my blanks. What type of chuck do you use to hold your blank? I have a drill chuck and a nova midi chuck that came with my lathe. Thanks.

 

[doddman70]

I use a jacobs chuck and my nova midi chuck with 1in pin jaws and it works great for me[][]

Shane

 

[gerryr]

It depends on how accurately centered you want the hole to be. The most accurate way to drill is to turn it round first to about .73" and use a Beall collet chuck with a 3/4" collet. Using a standard scroll chuck, even a good one, is not any more accurate than using a Paul Huffman vise and a decent drill press.

 

[Carver238]

I use a four way jaw chuck on the head stock and a jacobs chuck on the tail stock. I get the blank as straight as possible and then drill it out. Work fine for me but I have two lathes and I leave one setup to drill blanks.
Bill

 

[smoky10]

If your blanks are perfectly square (I square mine on my table saw) and you have the pin jaws for your chuck, you should have no problems.

 

[Rifleman1776]

All responses are on target. Lathe drilling works fine, it is just much slower than with the drill press.

 

[jtate]

'scuse my ignorance. What are pin jaws (for a chuck)?

 

[LEAP]

<br />

 

[Texatdurango]

Now that the original question has been answered, I have a related question.

Are there those who have a drill press, nice blank holding vice, and still have switched over to drilling on the lathe?

Are there any advantages you have found over using a drill press and vice?

George

 

[mewell]

George - We've started drilling the salt and pepper shakers LOML is making using the lathe. The bench top drill press has too short a throw to make it the 4+" without moving the table up once or twice [!] We just bought the 1" bit with #2 taper from CSUSA to try.

We'll see...

 

[Kami]

I have moved from drilling on a lathe to buying this drill press:

http://www.axminster.co.uk/product-Jet-JDP-17F-Floor-Standing-Pillar-Drill-362517.htm

However I started with the lathe first. Just a preferance I suppose.


Kami

 

[Sylvanite]

Originally posted by Texatdurango
<br />Are there those who have a drill press, nice blank holding vice, and still have switched over to drilling on the lathe?

I use both. Most of the time, I drill pen blanks with a drill press. It's faster and doesn't require me to reconfigure the lathe stocks.

When I have a special need for accuracy, however, I switch to drilling on the lathe. Some examples are:

(1) When drilling out bullets and rifle cases. I drill bullets from both ends with different size bits and the holes need to meet in the middle. The case head must be drilled concentrically or else the remainder of the pen won't line up perfectly. Tolerances are tight here and better served by spinning the material, not the drill bit. Collets and center-bits are very helpful here too.

(2) When drilling segmented or other materials with low margins of error. If the pattern in a segmented pen blank will be spoiled by an off-axis hole, I drill on the lathe. Rounded pieces of antler and other narrow stock often fall into this category as well.

(3) When drilling the hole in a bottle-stopper blank. Because the hole has to be perpendicular to the face of the blank, I true the face and drill the hole before removing it from the lathe.

I hope that makes sense,
Eric

 

[Jerryconn]

I drill on the lathe and with the drill press, I only thing I will say about drilling on the lathe is that you have to insure that your head and tail stock centers are really in line if not your hole will not be accurate.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Originally posted by Texatdurango
<br />Now that the original question has been answered, I have a related question.

Are there those who have a drill press, nice blank holding vice, and still have switched over to drilling on the lathe?

Are there any advantages you have found over using a drill press and vice?

George

George, I haven't "switched over" from drilling on the DP to lathe. But, there are occasions when the lathe works better. For extra long holes and sometimes difficult blanks I'll go to the lathe. With some experience you will just learn what you have to do in different situations.

 

[rherrell]

What Eric said!!('ceptin' I don't do them stopper thangs!)

 

[RussFairfield]

http://www.woodturner-russ.com/Pen22.html

This should answer your questions.

 

[Texatdurango]

Originally posted by RussFairfield
<br />http://www.woodturner-russ.com/Pen22.html

This should answer your questions.

Russ, I read your tutorial on drilling and you mentioned using the Black and Decker "Bullet-Point" bits as a way of combating bit wandering.

I've never used these particular bits but have used split-point bits for years with great success when drilling end grain.

It sounds like the bullet bits are taking the concept of the split point a little further. Have you ever used split point bits in sizes over 1/2" to where you could tell a noticable difference with the Black and Decker bits?

George