On 24 Feb 2012 05:31:07 GMT, "DoN. Nichols"
wrote:

On 2012-02-24, Karl Townsend wrote:
I need to make a pin .25" long by .096" diameter with a 0.109 by 0.117
head. It needs to be hard so I'll make it out of a 7/64 drill bit, the
size of the head.

What's a clever way to hold this in the lathe? it would be hard to
make soft jaws go down this small. I'm thinking some sort of
collapsible bushing that I'd drill.

Can you use 5C collets? If so, consider getting an "emergency"
collet, soft, which can be drilled/bored to size.

Or -- if you have a small enough lathe with a Watchmaker's
spindle, you should be able to find a WW series collet of just the right
size. For the 0.109 (if that is the diameter), a #27 or #28 collet
(they are marked in tenths of mm). For the 0.117 (if *that* is the
diameter, you would need a #30 likely, or perhaps a #29. (It calculates
out as 2.9718mm FWIW.

The WW collets are one of my reasons for holding on to both my
Unimat SL-1000 (with the watchmaker's spindle), and the Taig (with a
similar but less versatile spindle).

Good Luck,
DoN.
Mabee something like a pin vise?