Oaky my questions are simple, least I hope they are. I made a home made cork lathe useing a 1/4 inch peice of bar stock and a drill. the rig is simple in design, large hose clamps hold the drill and the bar slides into a removeable brace that supports it on the other end. I use a zip tie to hold the drills trigger down while i am turning the cork.... So my question is this... Will it work? I fear something is going to go wrong with this rig... What should I be careful of, and what are the pitfalls I should look out for?

I would not use a zip tie to hold the trigger. Or, if it is corded you could rig an inline switch for emergency shut off, then i guess a ziptie would be ok

Such set-ups have been used for years for light duty cork work. It should work fine. You might check to see if your drill has a constant on catch, that locks the trigger. That would spare the zip-tie.

...............

Find a hand spring clamp that will fit the trigger & grip and use for off/on and it comes off easily in case of disaster.
Something similar like the one below
[www.harborfreight.com]

Mark

here is a picture of the rig I use. Have for years and it works fine. Even tried it on wood. The next drill I get will have a keyed chuck. Not to happy with the key-less. [www.rodbuilding.org]

Bill - willierods.com

Bobby,
The use of a drill that has a variable speed will work fine for use as a lathe motor.
Just pull the trigger all of the way in and set the trigger lock and you will have a fine constant speed lathe.

However, in addition to that, I might suggest the use of a variable speed foot pedal.
You can pick these variable speed foot pedals on line for typically less than $50 - often as inexpensive as $10.

You simply plug the foot pedal into the wall outlet and then plug the drill into the foot pedal.

Now, you have a fail safe and variable speed for your motor. i.e. if you take your foot off the pedal, the motor stops instantly. Of, if you need to start out at a slower speed, you can simply depress the pedal lightly and the drill will start slowly.

Here is an example of an inexpensive variable speed control that will work fine with most electric drill motors as well as most other brush style AC electric motors.

[www.harborfreight.com]

Take care
Roger

Bill,
If you want a keyed chuck for your drill, simply go out and pick up a keyed chuck and replace the keyless chuck.
You can typically buy a keyed chuck for $10-$20.
Go into the end of the chuck, remove the screw holding the chuck on the drill - hold the chuck from turning, and give the drill a good backwards pop with the switch and the old chuck will come off.
Screw the new chuck back on, replace the screw and you will be good to go.

p.s.
If you buy a high quality industrial keyless chuck, or use a keyless chuck as are being used on the Milwaukee drill motors you will be very happy with the use of keyless chucks for your lathe.

I also was using an inexpensive keyless chuck on my first lathe and was unhappy. However, after going to a better quality keyless chuck, it has worked very well.

Take care
Roger

Thanks for the info Roger. I have had this Skil drill for years. Worked just fine. But the drill went south. Was thinking of having it rebuilt, but might be better to get new. The key less chuck is a jacobs.. Thought that was a pretty good one ?? I also am finding that a lot of new drills are of a lower RPM then this one. It goes up to 2250 RPMs. Checked a lot of prices and have to check on having this one rebuilt ?

Bill - willierods.com

Well, I will have to post some pics of my lathe soon. right now the only pics I have are on film waiting to be developed. then I will post them...

How are you guys securing the cork to the bar stock?To keep it from breaking loose and spinning freely.

Well it iis realitivly simple, 1/4 inch hole + 1/4 inch bar stock = tight fit. Friction does the job nicely.

If you build up masking tape in a couple of spots on the bar stock so that it is snug and straight when put in the butt end of your blank and you have it supported at the other end, you can turn grips right on the blank. I just tried this recently and it worked very well.