Drilling on a lathe

[panini]

When drilling my blanks on a lathe, I notice that the drill walks aound the center of the blank. I looked at the tailstock spindle it has some play. Is it normal to a have some play on the spindle? I got a Jet 1014 lathe. TIA..

 

[ngeb528]

We have some play in our mini. LOML drills down into the blank a little ways on the drill press, creating a starter hole. Seems to work well.

 

[JackTheSquid]

Bit wandering while drilling on a lathe is pretty common. Centering drills are made for just this problem and are readily available.

 

[hilltopper46]

In addition to the centering bits, two other things that can help.

1. Dress the end of the spinning blank so it is flat or slightly concave before you use the centering bit.
2. Use SHARP! drill bits.

 

[Art Fuldodger]

You can also create a starter hole (or divot) quite quickly with the long tip of your skew, while the piece is on the lathe. No need to use the drill press.

Also, a lot of people adjust head and/or tailstock until the drill bit tip is at the center of the whirling piece, and think that the job is done.

However, unless your head and tail stock are actually coaxial, your bit can still be pointing in a slightly different direction of the axis of the piece. That is a problem with my lathe, where the headstock is made to rotate, I occasionally have to give it a slight adjustment to align its axis with that of the tailstock.

 

[cnirenberg]

Bit wandering while drilling on a lathe is pretty common. Centering drills are made for just this problem and are readily available.

Check out penturnersproducts. John has these. They work like a charm too.

 

[mikemac]

I've been perfectly happy with drilling on my drillpress... but I'm always game to learn something new. Does anyone have pics of the process, or would be willing to take some? I'm just curious as to how some of you are holding the blanks.. my chuck doesn't seem to be setup for holding a pen blanks to drill into it.

 

[kmab]

I drill most of my blanks at the lathe;easier to set the speed. I mark the center of the blank & hit it with an automatic center punch.

 

[Paul in OKC]

Bit wandering while drilling on a lathe is pretty common. Centering drills are made for just this problem and are readily available.

My suggestion as well! You can use them on the drill press, too, to help prevent the bit from wandering at the start.

 

[jkeithrussell]

I drill most of my blanks at the lathe;easier to set the speed. I mark the center of the blank & hit it with an automatic center punch.

If you are talking about the type of punch where you hit the device with a mallet or hammer to start a hole, please be careful when doing this. I used to tap a starter hole in my blanks this way, but it will split a lot of the denser woods as well as crosscut or laminated blanks.