Drilling on the Lathe - 3 Qs

Material. Wood isn't really consistent enough to make a difference. Seems to respond best to score and scrape - bits with ears to guide, not points.

135 degrees is used to cut high alloy steel. (HSS, M2, etc.) For cast iron, aluminum, bronze, plastic,wood, etc. use 118

that picture is enough for me to take my ring off !!

After you got in a quarter inch or so you could switch to a straight bit. Wandering won't be an issue at that point...

...Kevin

Or use a wire like they use for a root canal ....

"root canal"? George, how could you use language like that on a family news group? Those are curse words where I come from. Why does my dentist have my finger inpressions in the arms of his chair, you ask? :-)

I didn't see this.

That's the item. I've never tried drills that small in a tailstock chuck, so I don't really know. I'd guess that there would be more lateral displacement with a drill chuck and wire drill adapter in the tailstock than there would be with the drill in a dremel or a pin vise. I've drilled using the dremel (freehand and mounted on a stand), but prefer using a pin vise.

Let us know which way you go and how it works.

>

======================== Probably not. The tail mounted chuck would be automatically centered on the work piece, and, IMO, drill straighter than hand held or drill press held drills.

Ken Moon Webberville, TX.

Yeah, but I've still not gotten in the habit yet.

That's exactly what I was looking for - in addition to George's comment about it not mattering too much for wood. Seems I've seen some company - Fuller, maybe? - that offers a 90 degree point...?

Thank you. My local Ace used to carry the really small # drills, but now they've dropped the "Ace" logo and only carry down to #60 - don't know if the two observations are related or not.

Will giver 'er a shot and see what happens.

Well Tigard WC carries both on the pegs. The one you noted from the online catalog looks much better online than in person - especially given the 2x price over the mini-drill chuck. Both, by the way, are made by the same company. I figured I could make up a turned handle/knob for the mini-chuck and end up with the same type of tool if it doesn't work mounted in my full-size 3-jaw drill chuck.

Will give it a go, prolly Monday...

Funny how that works!

Woodcrafters has MHG chisels (bevel edge). They seem pretty good, but look much better online.

Good idea!

>

I was reading in an old book that 90 was ideal for wood. But I can't find that reference. I did find this chart:

which lists nearly everything EXCEPT wood.

Just wanted to post a followup to this thread.

The mini-chuck from Woodcraft was a bust. It was bent and thus rotated off-center. I could have straightened it, but then I wasn't confident it would be true in the future unless I checked it before every use. Since I was wanting to mount this in the tailstock, checking it would require unmounting whatever was in the headstock to install a chuck and re-true. I decided to return it and just use my Albrecht clone keyless chuck - which is supposed to have a 0"-1/2" capacity. Also, the collet threads were rough and not very nice to use - can one expect decent quality for $10? I guess not.

I also bought the mini bit set (#61-#80) for $5. Very cheap and not of particularly high quality. However, I noticed an identical looking set at my local Ace Hardware in the metal grinding and welding section going for $11. I decided to keep the Woodcraft set just to have them on hand since the Ace store has stopped selling individual bits smaller than #60 in the last couple years.

As to drilling into the endgrain of hard maple, I tried George's suggestion to reverse the lathe and "burn" the bit through. Worked like a charm. Not sure how large a bit could successfully use this method, but the #60 bit (.040") accomplished the task just fine. The through holes were spot on or very nearly so with regard to parting off the wood and having the "inner" hole in the center. On my previous 2 tries drilling in the traditional manner, the "inner" holes were not centered well enough to be confident of the results.

Thanks to all who took the time to offer opinions.