Drilling barrels on the lathe

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
InkyMike

InkyMike

Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2016
Messages
403
Location
Maple Valley, WA
Hello everyone

I have the specialized chuck to drill pens and bottle stoppers for my lathe. I'm only using a Shop Fox 1704 at the moment - it has the tail stock without the large hand wheel - it has the small one that moves in pretty small increments.

Given that, drilling and backing out as you go to any depth take a good deal of time. Ideally the solution would be to unlock the tail stock and then just push it by hand, but there is too much play and I'm afraid it could elongate the hole.

Any tricks to this to make it more efficient?

Thanks!
Michael
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
Try to adapt a wheel to your lathe. One could be made of wood or if you can find a used wheel that would be great. Shouldn't be too hard to adapt
 
FWIW, this is why I don't drill pen blanks & bottle stoppers on the lathe. It's much slower than using a good drill press and, unless you're working with segmented or other specialty blanks, the slightly higher degree of precision is not necessary.

You definitely don't want to unlock the tail stock & push by hand. Changing to a larger wheel might help.
 
If speed is an important issue then buy a quality drill press. And set up your specialuzed pen drilling chuck as your vise. A drill press is faster, a lot faster.

For me, pens are a relaxing adventure. I usually make them one at a time. I turn the blank round between centers, then drill the blank using my collet chuck to hold it.

Turning game calls are my bread and butter. I use the drill press, cranking out 24 or 48 one at a time right after each other. If I could have justified it, I would have bought a gang drill press to drill 4, 6, or 12 with one stroke of the quill.
 
Edgar said:
FWIW, this is why I don't drill pen blanks & bottle stoppers on the lathe. It's much slower than using a good drill press and, unless you're working with segmented or other specialty blanks, the slightly higher degree of precision is not necessary.

You definitely don't want to unlock the tail stock & push by hand. Changing to a larger wheel might help.
Click to expand...
For now mine are segmented. My drill press will work for smaller items as well, I just liked the idea of using one machine for everything. Neither one of them have enough throw for a full length pen body. That may be the next uograde

Michael
 
dogcatcher said:
If speed is an important issue then buy a quality drill press. And set up your specialuzed pen drilling chuck as your vise. A drill press is faster, a lot faster.

For me, pens are a relaxing adventure. I usually make them one at a time. I turn the blank round between centers, then drill the blank using my collet chuck to hold it.

Turning game calls are my bread and butter. I use the drill press, cranking out 24 or 48 one at a time right after each other. If I could have justified it, I would have bought a gang drill press to drill 4, 6, or 12 with one stroke of the quill.
Click to expand...
It's relaxing for me as well, and I can certainly make it work as-is. I was just wondering if there was a technique I'm missing. I turned my first pen about a week ago and used my drill press, but that's before my chuck got here. I just cranked out my first bottle stopper and used the lathe to drill. It worked great, just s tad slower than if I had my press set up for it.

Michael.
 
I have drilled both ways. I'm getting where I do a couple of pens at a time. My Rikon lathe doesn't have a lot of travel in the quill so...I drill to the mark where the Jacobs chuck will start out, stop the lathe with the bit in the blank, pull up on the quill lock handle, slide the quill forward while retracting the Jacobs chuck. Then finish the drilling. I have the Nova pen jaws which are good.
 
Since I drill 4.25" x .5" blanks I drill them all on a lathe. A while ago I made and fabricated a larger wheel and longer handle to turn it when I added this threaded rod/ spring attachment so the chuck won't pull out of the quill.
You only want to experience that once in your life. Drill about 200 blanks a year with this.
IMG_20221219_145554735.jpg
 
What would be better would be a tailstock like the Taig lathe. A lever takes place of the mechanical quill. Another is the Sensitive Drill Attachments that are available. The downside of both is the short stroke of both.

The ideal method would be a tailstock built with a drill press head. Motor and quill mounted horizontally with the headstock chuck held solid with the chuck as a stationary vise.

MT2 Shank Sensitive Drill Attachment For JT2 taper Drill Chuck Precision on eBay!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/4040030276...id=uqlgL5HZSJO&widget_ver=artemis&media=EMAIL

The above link is a sensitive drilling attachment. This one will drill about 1.37 inches without moving the tailstock.
 
wouldentu2? said:
Since I drill 4.25" x .5" blanks I drill them all on a lathe. A while ago I made and fabricated a larger wheel and longer handle to turn it when I added this threaded rod/ spring attachment so the chuck won't pull out of the quill.
You only want to experience that once in your life. Drill about 200 blanks a year with this.
View attachment 345248
Click to expand...
Yikes.

How is your wheel attached to the stock wheel?
 
dogcatcher said:
What would be better would be a tailstock like the Taig lathe. A lever takes place of the mechanical quill. Another is the Sensitive Drill Attachments that are available. The downside of both is the short stroke of both.

The ideal method would be a tailstock built with a drill press head. Motor and quill mounted horizontally with the headstock chuck held solid with the chuck as a stationary vise.

MT2 Shank Sensitive Drill Attachment For JT2 taper Drill Chuck Precision on eBay!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/4040030276...id=uqlgL5HZSJO&widget_ver=artemis&media=EMAIL

The above link is a sensitive drilling attachment. This one will drill about 1.37 inches without moving the tailstock.
Click to expand...
That's very cool. My dad is a machinist - May need to see if he can make one for an MT1 taper and a longer throw.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom