HELP!!! I've taken up a new hobby, building ice-fishing rods. I have never done any of this before so I expected lots of mistakes. At least I have not been disappointed...lol

Okay, I'm turning down the handles on a wood lathe, the problem is that I can't get the hole drilled into the handle straight. I have tried drilling after the handle is turned, I've tried drilling the hole in the square handle stock before turning, I've tried making a jig and securing it to the drill press and then c-clamping the stock into the jig. Nothing has worked. I have turned out about 15 handles and still cannot get it right. Is there a trick? Or will i need to get a lathe that I can center-bore with. Really don't want to do that, wife thinks I'm nuts as it is, watching tv and wrapping rods....etc. Any help would be most appreciated.

Phil,
Put "boring wood handles" in the search engine above your post, the answer is there in many techniques.

You can center bore with any wood lathe. You don't need a special lathe. You do, however, need a 3-jaw chuck for the head stock and a drill chuck for the tailstok
Here is a link to a photo on the photo page showing a PSI Turncrafter Pro mini lathe set up for boring

[www.fishingphotos.net]

The 2 chucks are from Penn Sate Industries and were around $50-60 for both

Mike

Thanks so much...

mike is right. Its the only sure fire way to get it right. some guys drill the hole first and then mount it on a steel mandrel which also works pretty good but I have a heck of a time getting the holes from each end to meet in the middle so I use the lathe method

That is a nice looking lath. Wish I had the room for one, I could do some nice things with it??