I would like to make a 1 1/4" wide hole 10 1/2" deep. Trying to do this on the lathe is proving more difficult than I would have thought. I'm drilling into rounded stock. Trying to hold it on the drill press didn't prove successful either. Any suggestions appreciated.
Tim
That's not drilling, that's hollowing ;-)
Seriously - what kind of wood, and how are you holding it in the lathe? Something like that, I'd hope you're using a chuck (not a spur) to hold the wood (not the the drill bit), with the drill bit in the tailstock.
I should have been a little more clear. Delta 14" lathe and I did try a drill press chuck in the tailstock. It almost worked it's way right out of the tailstock. I have an extension for the fostner bit but still not going smooth enough.
glue the part to a pc of plywood and clamp it to the drill press table and go slow and work your way down using the extension on your bit, blow it out to keep it clean and cool and it should work out, I have done this in the past, good luck
Adds to the tedium, but doing that a couple of inches at a time and using a pilot drill each time would help keep on track.
Ken
Almost forgot.
If you insist on the lathe, make sure you've got a couple of steadies on your side. A three-point type is optimum, as on a gun lathe, but the simple wedge steadies either side of centerline will be a big help as well.
Just a thought about using a forsner bit for this- having used them fairly extensively, in flat work, I've found that they really like to be cleared every time you drill as deep as the cutting head. That's an awful lot of clearing to do on the lathe- I know an auger bit is often suggested as well, but I've had some poor luck with those as well when drilling into end grain. My vote is for a good ol' spade bit. After trying the other two options, I found that this works the best for drilling lamps, and has two advantages- namely, they're cheaper, and you can buy them as long as you need them to be, so there is no extension involved.
If you really need the flat bottom you'd get from a forsner bit, try drilling it with the spade bit to within a half inch or so of the finished depth, and then finish it off with the forsner bit.
Hope this helps, I had a lot of headaches making lamps before I hit upon this.
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