I recently tried to drill my first set of tubes for a Jr. Gent. i use my lathe to drill and rounded the blank before mounting. I have since found a way to drill on the lathe without rounding the blank.
My problem is this: When i drilled out the body, everything went fine. But when i did the cap at 12 or 12.5 MM or whatever it is, the material was so thin (homebrew PR) that it was bending in my hand. I put the tube inside the blank and laid it flat so it would cool as straight as possible, but one end of the blank was stretched out.
Am i missing something here with these big tubes? Will the squareness of the blank hopefully leave enough "meat" on the blank to correct the problem? Is there a feasable way to drill with a smaller bit first maybe?
Any help would be appreciated!
My problem is this: When i drilled out the body, everything went fine. But when i did the cap at 12 or 12.5 MM or whatever it is, the material was so thin (homebrew PR) that it was bending in my hand. I put the tube inside the blank and laid it flat so it would cool as straight as possible, but one end of the blank was stretched out.
Am i missing something here with these big tubes? Will the squareness of the blank hopefully leave enough "meat" on the blank to correct the problem? Is there a feasable way to drill with a smaller bit first maybe?
Any help would be appreciated!