Tool sharpening/blank drilling on the cheap...

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redfishsc

redfishsc

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North Charleston , SC
I am about to be in a pickle. I'm moving in the next few months to Wake Forest NC for seminary (check out www.sebts.edu , this is a great seminary).

I will likely not be working in a cabinet shop as I am now (ie, every major tool I could dream of). I will have to jam all my penturning stuff into a spare bedroom, which I'm not all that excited about (other than being able to turn pens right at home instead of 25 miles away at work).

I'm looking for alternative ways of sharpening skews, spindle gouges, bowl gouges, etc... A skew looks easy enough to sharpen with a coarse diamond stone, but how do you sharpen a spindle gouge without a big ol grinder or belt sander?

I'm also looking for ways to drill blanks out without a drill press. Can the lathe be used for this? Seems like it would be a matter of cinching it to the tailstock somehow and using hand force to press it gently into the drill bit on the headstock.

Much appreciate the help....
 
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If you have a chuck with small enough jaws, the lathe can be used for drilling. Put the blank into the jaws, and bring the tailstock up with a drill chuck in it. As for sharpening, you may want to look into not using a gouge, and sticking with a skew. As you mentioned, a skew will be easy enough to sharpen by hand. A gouge can be done, but it takes practice. With a slip stone and a diamond hone, you should be able to maintain an edge, though.
 
Congratulations of choosing a fine school. I graduated from SWBTS some time ago.

A lathe can be used to drill out pen blanks and some do this regularly. I will bet that you will find this more precise than with a drill press. Also, you can use the chuck on either end. Put a small 3 or 4 inch sanding pad in the chuck and use that to sharpen your tools for the main sharpening; then use microfine sandpaper for touch ups.
 
If you really can't use a grinder, maybe you could find a way to mount a griding stone on your lathe, like a buffing wheel?

I made a 2 disk buffing wheel that I use on my jet mini using 5/8 threaded rod and cheesy little buffing wheels. I don't see why you couldn't do the same thing with a grinding wheel, and make up some sort of creative tool rest that mounts to the lathe bed.

One of the added advantages is you could control the speed of the wheel with your lathe.

Just thinking here.... I don't see how manually sharpening would work for very long, or else you would be doing an awful lot of it.

My shop is in about 2/3 of a single car garage and I can't believe the amount of stuff I have packed in there. Theres not much room for humans, but the tools, well, as long as they are being used, they are happy....[:D]
 
Thanks for the info guys. Lee, Southwestern is a great place too. I see you spend time in Miss. and in Japan, and I bet I know why.


Anyhow, I much appreciate the information. Anyone know of a link showing how to drill out a blank with the lathe only? Pics help me out a lot, lol.
 
PSI has a sanding plate/disk that attaches to the spindle on your lathe without interfering with the mandrel. The 3/4-16 is 5" diameter and the 1-8 is 6" diameter. Both come with PSA sanding disks. These are meant for sharpening tools while turning. Might check with Woodturningz to see if he has them cheaper.

Paul in AR
 
Well, if you are handy, make some jigs to fit your lathe (ala Shop Smith style) you could make a sliding blank drilling table that attaches to you ways. Make it so the blank can be secured to the top and hand push it to advance it. Same thing for sharpening with the above mentioned make a jig.
 
I'm even lazier than Russ - I just used PSA-backed sandpaper (they sell 6" discs at Home Depot) and stock that to my 6" face plate.
 
I was away from my shop for the winter, but took a bare-bones pen shop with me. For sharpening, I made sure my tools were sharpened well when I left for the winter. I took a set of the PSI diamond hones that I bought on sale for $19. I found that be honing regularly, my chisels worked fine. That set has some curved hones that worked just fine on my gouges. As for drilling, I don't have a chuck, and the cost to set up my lathe to drill was a little too steep for me. But, there are real cheap bench-top drill pressed available... Harbor Freight, for example occasionally sells theirs for under $50. I was lucky enough to borrow one. It wouldn't be a replacement for my Delta, but for blank drilling, it worked fine. Local advertisers often have used ones real cheap. Finally, most colleges and universities have shops in their maintenance departments. If you're going to be a persuasive cleric, you ought to be able to talk your way in.
 
This has been posted before but thought you might like to see it. This is how I drill 95% of my blanks:



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According to the flier I got in the mail the other day, my local HF has lot number 38119/44506 on sale for $39.99. Not the world's greatest drill press, but it isn't bad if you're short on cash and space, it will suffice. Just take your time and set it up carefully, keeping in mind that it doesn't drill a full blank-length.
 
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