Dave Hinz wrote:
On 22 Apr 2005 07:06:08 -0700, wrote:

How do you drill with a lathe?


I do that by holding the drill bit in the tail piece, (either a chuck
with the right taper, or a drillbit with the right taper), and the piece
being drilled in the chuck (or held to a faceplate, I suppose). Works
very well for then tapping that hole, to make sure it's exactly aligned
with the hole you just drilled.

Look at it this way - lots of metalworking is done by rotating one thing
while another thing is held still. Either the tool rotates, or the work
rotates. It doesn't matter which is moving, it's just the relative
movement between the two that makes it work. Figure out how to hold the
tool, figure out how to hold the work, and make some chips.


I've seen pictures of accessories I think are called "tailstock drill
pads" which look like round disks a bit smaller than the swing of the
lathe with a tapered spindle on them to fit in the tailstock ram.

You'd put a drill bit in the headstock chuck or a collet and hand hold
or clamp the part to be drilled against that tailstock pad, then use the
tailstock crank to feed it into the drill. I think the idea was that it
could be more convenient than trying to secure an odd shaped part to a
headstock faceplate and you could also drill holes in long narrow pieces
which couldn't be rotated on the faceplate.

Seemed like it might be a little risky to hand hold a part, but then who
here hasn't hand held parts on a drill press table plenty of times when
drilling small holes?

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"As long as there are final exams, there will be prayer in public
schools"