So my brother and i were screwing around earlier, he has a 4 jaw chuck, a Jacobs super chuck, various live centers and spur centers..

With the 4 jaw on the head stock and a 16" drill bit chucked up in the jacobs at the tail we started drilling.. His lathe has about 3" of travel.. I was nervous starting the lathe back up after moving the tail in..then it smoked a bit lol.. We stopped, thought about what we were doing..

He doesnt have a mandrel, we decided its not really practial to drill that way, and on top of that, now we cant figure out what to do about a tail stock..

I told him he needs to get a steady rest.. And a mandrel saver... Along with a mandrel obviously.. Is there any other way to go about drilling? His drill press doesnt have enough travel either.. And is there a way to ontinue turning with out a steady rest? We concidered puting a waxed dowel in the jacobs but again.. That seems risky..

Anthony,
Get or make a steady rest. Without a steady rest, it is impossible to stabilize the end of the handle when drilling.

With the steady rest, simply drill 2 inches at a time. Stop the lathe, move the tail stock up 2 inches and continue to drill.

It is important that before you start drilling, you have a properly sharpened razor sharp drill bit.

This is the setup that I use for my lathe when drilling as you mention.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

However, after doing this a few times, I would certainly suggest that you drill the hole in the wood before you start doing the wood turning and shaping. i.e. drill the hole, insert the mandrel, and then turn the handle with no need for the steady rest.

Best wishes.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2019 08:31AM by roger wilson.

The bit is new.. So not razor sharp.. Lol i hate having to hone things before use..

It did drill straight for the little it drilled.. There was a center mark from the tail stock.. How do you suggest making a steady rest? Theres obviously the option to buy one.. But if we could make one, why not?

Do you use your steady rest in place of the tail stock for shaping then? Everything ive read says drill first, then shape.. *Sigh* i guess the next question is to ask the best way to chuck up a mandrel.. Im guessing the Jacobs...

Can you tell we dont have. Alot of experience? Lol

Anthony,
You mentioned that you "smoked" the drill bit.

How fast did you have the work piece turning.

Some tasks when dong turning require a high speed on the chuck.

But, generally speaking for drilling, about the slowest speed that a multi speed lathe can turn is the correct speed.

To hold the mandrel, you can use your choice of chucks. If your main chuck goes down far enough to hold the mandrel, the use of that chuck will be fine. But, if you need to go to a smaller chuck, then you can normally use the jacobs chuck that is used in your tail stock to be used on the head stock to hold the mandrel - assuming that the head stock and tail stock have the same insert size.

If you look at the picture you posted, you can just use this as an idea for making the steady rest. I used skate board ball bearings, aluminum and steel rods for the construction of the rest.

Good luck

Wish we could figure out the speed... His lathe was rebuilt... So the step pulleys and motor are not original.. Its a 12" craftsman "De-Lux" model from 1938 or 39 with a 3' bed..

We didnt smome the bit, just had smoke rolling off the wood.. Backed off, saved the tip.. We were only in maybe 4"

3/4 hp, motor pulley set to 2" step, head pulley set to 4" step.. Couldnt tell you the rpm.. Buy its as slow as she will go.. Compaired to my mini lathe i just got, i'd say we were running around 800

Sorry i ment to look at the picture.... gotcha.. Thats a slick setup.. I would have had to ask how you got your rollers to rest on the wood.. But googed, and read your caption, how to make one..

As for the 4 jaw chuck, its nice, but cant go down below 3/4 i believe.. He turns alot kf larger things.. He just half listened to me, decided he wanted to do handles out of the blue for me.. Got a couple hundred bucks worth of stuff, never asked for my opinion.. Lol

So now he has to wait until i need a wooden handle, and figure out how to make his setup work.. This is why i got a lathe myself.. However he has money.... I dont lol

Anthony,
The normal cause of smoke coming from a hole being drilled is that either the drill bit is not sharp, the drill speed is too high, or the feed rate of the drill bit is too fast, or a combination of all three.

800 rpm for drilling into wood is a perfectly fine speed.

I might guess that the problem is the drill bit, and or the grind on the tip of the drill bit.

If a person uses a less expensive drill bit made of softer steel, it may be necessary to frequently sharpen the drill bit.

If you have a belt or disk sander, sharpening the drill bit is pretty straight forward, after you sharpen about 50 drill bits.

If not, you can buy a commercial drill bit sharpener to take care of this chore in an effortless fashion.

If one buys excellent drill bits, one can be assured that the grind on the bit will be excellent. On a less expensive drill bit, maybe not.

Good luck

Oh.. Im famililar with shaprening bits lol im a machinist.. Thats a daily chore... The bit was brand new, so a said before, far from razor sharp lol.. Not a high end bit, far from a lower grade... Thanks for the input.. Im fairly certain the reason was the chipd werent ejecting.. Got all gummed up sort of speak

As to the lathe speed for drilling holes it's no different than the speed you'd use with a drill press to drill a stationary item, but in this case it's the work piece that's turning. What size drill bit are you using? Do a search for "drill speed for wood" or similar to get recommended speeds.

That particular chuck of wood was getting a 5/16... In hind sight, its always better to step up then go for broke... Then again.. Just googled speeds, we were definatly going slower then recommend



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2019 12:19PM by Anthony Unger.

You didn't say what type of bit so I hope you know to use a brad point bit. I chuck my turning block into the 4 jaw chuck and that works fine. At first I tried using a 12" bit and discovered that wanders too much. I solved that by first using a standard length bit to drill the first 2.5" or so, centered and straight. Then I change over to the longer bit and finish it. The longer the bit, the more difficult it is so don't use a longer bit than necessary, and don't feed too fast. You also have to retract the bit often to clean it out else the shavings will smoke and squeal.

John Shear
Chippewa Falls, WI

Thats what was happening.. Unfortunately my brother was at the wheel lol.. Thank you for that though.. Ill have to look, by brother got the bit, i didnt take notice to what tip style it has.. Knowing him im sure its a brad, but you never know

If you were not backing the bit out frequently to clean it and the hole, you were creating a lot of friction around the bit itself. I bore many wood bits with a 4/jaw and the bit in a Jacobs, boring a little at a time. If the bit gets hot I cool it in a cup of cold water..

I do this with various size brad point bits as well as 3/4" and 20mm Forstner bits. On my fly rod grips I bore over 6" in length with the 20mm for inserting foam cores. For none of them do I use a steady rest. Don't have one, never found the need.

Check the "grips section in photos for some of my work.

I will