Hocus Pocus!! lathe into drill press!!

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MatthewZS

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Jul 22, 2010
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Location
Georgetown Texas
Has anyone tried engineering a vertical "bed" to replace the tailstock on your lathe thus turning it into a horizontal drill press?

If so I'd love to hear and or see ideas?

Thanks:)
 
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Whatcha trying to drill?

I've used a drill in the headstock, the tool rest to keep square stock from turning, and the tailstock to advance it.... Made plenty of handles this way.
 
Not trying to drill anything specific. Pen blanks mostly, which I know I can do with a collet chuck or some other arrangement...... But I got thinking that if I could easily turn this into a horizontal drill press It might could fill ALL my drilling needs. I'm going to be operating in a tight space, so the more multi purpose I can make my tools, the better.
 
What I started doing is cutting my blanks to size on the saw, chucking them up in the pin jaws and mounting a dead drill chuck, http://www.pennstateind.com/store/TM32KL.html
after I have figured out what is going to be used in what pen, say if Im making slimlines, I'll drill all my blanks Im going to use at the same time, usually takes less time to do this then marking the center and moving over to the drill press. After that I'll mix up some epoxy, glue the tubes in and then clean up my chips or go inside for a drink or corral the kids. Once the epoxy has set I'll put the blanks back in the lathe and use this to square the ends.
http://www.pennstateind.com/store/SPA2PAD.html
Usually about a 60-100 grit, I'm sure there are better ways but this is what works for me.
 
He's not just talking about drilling pen blanks , but rather turning a lathe into a movable table drill press .
While the idea has some merits the engineering has several problems . What would you use for a rack/pinion to move the table/tailstock and would it be permanent or removable so you could easily convert either way ?
 
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Of course you can do it -- Should function fairly well with two toolrests on the system. It will be ackward in many situations, but it can be done.
 
MatthewZS said:
Has anyone tried engineering a vertical "bed" to replace the tailstock on your lathe thus turning it into a horizontal drill press?

If so I'd love to hear and or see ideas?

Thanks:)
Click to expand...

Matthew; I would only add one caution; You will need a drawbar and a jacobs chuck with a threaded taper. This keeps the chuck safely in the headstock and mot chasing you around the shop!
 
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