Why put adrill chuck in a lathe?

The reason you use a drill bit in a lathe is convenience. You already have the work in the lathe so you don't have to remove and then remount it - probly other technical reasons as well.

To drill a pepper gr>Silly newbie question:

Unless otherwise stated all references to location refer to Western Australia

The work is already centered on the lathe, so you don't have the problem of aligning it under the drill press.

In theory there should be less chance for the drill bit to wander off center if the wood is turning rather than the drill bit.

You'd put it in the headstock to use as a tiny chuck.

Note: if you can find one that accepts a draw bar, get that one. You'd put it in the tailstock to drill centered holes in whatever's mounted in the headstock.

... by putting a forstner bit in a drill chuck in the tailstock? I think you've answered your own question there :)

And you can use it in the headstock for turning small items such as bottle stoppers too.

Hi Steve,

You answered your own question. For more info, there are several archived rcw threads on using the lathe to drill long straight holes.

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

I have a morse taper for my drill bit chuck and use it all the time, mostly on the tailstock..

one example of use would be when making small jars, boxes, vases, etc.. I true the wood, put it in a chuck or on a faceplate, then use a cheap fornser bit to drill the proper size hole to the approximate depth needed..

I could do this on the DP, but I'd have to either drill the stock before turning, which not only implies a high degree of turning accuracy, and also force me to KNOW what I was going to turn before I started, which takes a lot of the fun out of it.. or, I could turn the object round, build a jig for it and drill it on the DP..

You can also mount the taper on the headstock to turn small things... especially handy if you want to convert an old screwdriver to an awl or something... or taper small dowels without using the DP and working with your head held sideways.. lol

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

I use a morse taper drill chuck in the headstock for turning light pulls - I drill the blank through with a smallish bit (3mm), and then counter-drill one end to a depth of about 1cm with an 8mm bit. This gives the hole that the knot in the string goes into.

I have got a countersink bit with the edges ground off that goes into the wide hole (and in the drill chuck) that I use as a drive, and turn the pull between centres that way. It means that I can cut right up to the hole (as the shank of the countersink is narrower than the hole) to get a decent finish.

Works for me...

Giles.