General Category > General Discussion

Drilling side grain on the lathe

(1/3) > >>

turningal:
I hope that I can get some help and advice , I am struggling to drill into the side grain of wood being spindle turned between centres, I’ve tried making a wooden post fixed in the toolrest banjo and drilling a hole in that to drill through or use as a drill guide, but I’m using forstener bits (28mm) and although supported on the stem there is too much play to keep the bit at right angles to the wood, even after drilling a pilot hole, it’s too inaccurate. I am happy to drill wood in the square on a drill press before turning but that doesn’t work when trying to drill holes at 120 degree points.
Any advice would be welcome but be gentle I’m not a carpenter or joiner, so not too complex please, or is there a jig that I can buy?

Bill21:
You don’t say what the item is but could it be drilled after turning? You’d need to support it and find a way of indexing it though. If your chuck has indexing you could perhaps leave the workpiece attached to the chuck and move the whole lot to the drill press?

turningal:
Hi Bill
It needs to be drilled on the lathe, it won’t fit under my drill press (not with a drill bit in it!)

Duncan A:
Buy or make a jig that holds your drill, rather than the drill bit. Obviously it will need to slide in order to feed the drill bit into the wood.
Oneway and, I think, Sorby make such jigs and Paul Howard makes a routing jig. All of these could be used for inspiration when making your own if you don't want to buy one.
Duncan

turningal:
Thanks Duncan, as they say, ‘why didn’t I think about that!’
I think the Paul Howard jig is beyond my price range, but I’ll explore one way and Sorby, in the meantime look at ‘cobbling up something myself’.
Kind regards
Alan

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page