Dear Friends,

I just assembled a lathe drill "machine" with focus in shape/restore cork and EVA grips. The kit is based on a brand new hand drill rock solid fixed in a wood support and a wood tailstock with a small bearing support for the shaft.
The thing is quite rigid and during the initial testing showed strong enough. As everybody knows there is some play in those hand drill machines (chuck) even on brand new like mine. As I'm looking for good fits, nice shapes and things like that I would like to ask:
Which results I can wait from this stuff? with such play in the chuck I'm affraid about no perfect round parts.

Rogerio.

It sounds like you've put some planning and effort into this project. Because there is some play in your drill chuck, this will transfer into your finished product, but I'm thinking the play in the chuck is probably very slight considering it's a new drill. I believe the offset in your finished product will be so slight that you will be the only one that knows it's there. It's one of those things that you as the builder will know it's there, but no one else would ever see it, including another builder.

Good luck and happy turning.

Harold

Rog-
You are fighting the same "poor man's rod building tools" battle that I fight daily. I think when turning grips on your tool if you will use the shortest "mandrel" possible your turnings will be more true. In other words, don't use 18" of mandrel to turn a 6 " grip. You may have to change the position of your bearing support to do so. There will be less wobble over shorter length and drill chuck run-out may affect you less. If your grips are much longer than that you will not have that option. If your drill is variable speed then changing speeds until you find one that produces the truest turnings would be a good idea. If that works out to be a slower speed then you will spend more time turning but you may get a better result. The more solidly that support bearing is anchored the better your results will be.


Good luck-Chris

If you hardware store it up, you can find all you need to render the problem fixed.

1. replacement chuck for any drill.
2. carriage bolt same thread as the chuck.
3. 2 Pillow block bearings same I.D. as the carriage bolt O.D. to support the carriage bolt

Bolt the bearings to a piece of hardwood space them as needed, its really dependent on how long the carriage bolt is. Secure the carriage bolt in the bearings and then screw the replacement chuck onto the carriage bolt.

You can cut the head of the carriage bolt off and chuck it up in your drill, or add a pulley and a motor scrapped from a sewing machine picked up at thrift store with foot control for a variable speed if you want to get uppity with it. Ive used old fan motors (they last a long time), 12 volt DC motors, junk sewing machines and drills as well.

Maybe you would like to check out this hobby drill lathe that Mike Barkley steered me onto. It's a nice little set up for the hobby builder on a shoe string budget.

Go to google type in grizzly.com,go to wood lathes.Look for hobby lathes.
You jut might like what you see.I did. The thing about this type of lathe is it portable and you can do all your turning out side if you like and do away with the dust inside.

Good day <<<<DON>>>>

Harold - I figured this in the first testing so thanks for the support.

Chris- "Go poor builders go!" - Thanks for the advice.

Mike- I'm not sure the play is in the chuck (brand new) I will try to figure out and try to fix - Thanks for the advice.

Donald - Uhhhhhhh those small wood lathes looks gorgeous! Unfortunatelly it's overseas... anyway Thanks.