[Spinnetti]

Hi All.

I've been doing lots of deep drilling on my lathe, and its a total pain having to spin that little wheel on the tailstock over and over. Any parts out there, or ideas to make it with some kind of rack an pinion and a big lever? I don't need huge amounts of force, just want it to work like you can do on a mill. I have a Grizzly 12x37 or so gap bed mill.

TIA..

[Kiwi]

Add a flange to the handwheel to create a drum. Thread a chord over a pulley attached to a rafter and down to the drum. Add a weight to the other end of the chord. When you turn the handle the chord will windup the weight. To unwind just pull the chord.
I do this with my compound feed when doing repetitive passes.

Option two would to start the hole in the lathe and finish in a drill press.

[toastydeath]

Mount the drill in your cross slide.

[pastera]

Add a lever feed to your tailstock
http://www.kinzers.com/don/MachineTo...etailstock.jpg

Aaron

[Runner4404spd]

get a quick change tool post and get a holder for an MT taper and mount the drill into that then you can use the saddle to run back and forth as opposed to the little tiny crank at that back.

[Kiwi]

What size drill is being used?
I would have thought using the saddle to hold a drill (eg. 3/8" plus) would be putting excess loading on the working parts.
Using the tail stock gives a direct force with good leverage.

[toastydeath]

The saddle is usually equal to or more rigid than the tailstock. I'm not familiar with the smallest lathes, but I don't see why it wouldn't work just fine. If you can securely hold the drill, there's no problem doing it this way. You get power feed for the full length of the drill, and a quick retract.

[Kiwi]

I guess it's depends on the material being drilled, the size of the drill and the size of the lathe.
When using the saddle there must be considerable twisting taking place as the rack for the drive is way out line with the drilling axis. Are the saddles guide-ways designed to with stand these forces?
When using the tail stock these forces are inline.

[Baketech]

I know I will get flayed for this, but if I have a lot of repetitive drilling like that, I use my cordless drill to motor the tailstock in and out...

[gridley51]

If you can`t use the toolpost to mount a drill,or make bracket for the crosslide to hold the drill,then make a bracket to connect the tailstock to the saddle.Leave the tailstock free to slide and tow it with the saddle in power feed.
Mark

[Spinnetti]

Thanks Guys!

I'm just drilling .250 holes in a aluminum the full depth of the bit - takes LOTS of chip clearing. Those were all creative solutions to the same problem. Having worked in a production environment years ago, I have no patience for doing anything slowly! The best of the bunch is what "Pastera" posted - thats EXACTLY what I was looking for, I just needed to visualize it - Thanks! I suppose if that is ever not strong enough, I can get another tail stock or put the wheel back in, but generally it should be perfect.

PS, "Baketech" I've done worse, like duct taping my right angle grinder to my tool post when I was doing the ball screw conversion on my mill! (it worked great too!)

Here's what I'm making: Almost exact scale landing gear for R/C planes, in this case a WWII fighter - the FW190 - Still have a few more ops to do on these and are a great case to CNC my lathe. (Pics are of early working proto and latest version in progress)

[Baketech]

Cool little project...FW190's are awesome!

[toastydeath]

I guess it's depends on the material being drilled, the size of the drill and the size of the lathe.
When using the saddle there must be considerable twisting taking place as the rack for the drive is way out line with the drilling axis. Are the saddles guide-ways designed to with stand these forces?
When using the tail stock these forces are inline.

Saddles are designed to take all kinds of forces, from any direction and of larger magnitude than the tailstock is. The tailstock is just a fun and easy place to put a drill.

[Kiwi]

Saddles are designed to take all kinds of forces, from any direction and of larger magnitude than the tailstock is. The tailstock is just a fun and easy place to put a drill.

You don't appear to appreciate the benefits of applying the pressure with the tailstock.

[toastydeath]

You are listing things that don't matter as benefits. I have a bad habit of not appreciating what doesn't exist.

The saddle is designed to handle cutting loads. Saying that it's superior to use the tailstock because the force is applied on axis is ridiculous, because the saddle was designed to handle off-axis forces and suffers no ill effect because of it. That's what cutting under power is on a lathe - off axis. Is it theoretically perfect? No, but it doesn't matter because the machine was designed around that compromise. Ram head knee mills are nowhere near theoretically perfect either, and any half awake machine designer can list a hundred no-nos, but they work great anyway. Good design, and design compromise.

The drill will stay on center, the same force is applied to the drill, and there's no excessive wear. The outcomes are identical.

With the carriage, you get a power feed and the ability to drill whatever depth you want. You do have to align the drill, which you don't have to do on the tailstock. For a quick hole, the tailstock is superior for that reason and it would be ridiculous to argue otherwise. But for a deep hole that's going to take a bit to drill, there's no reason to use the tailstock.

[Kiwi]

Saying that it's superior to use the tailstock because the force is applied on axis is ridiculous.

You OBVIOUSLY don't appreciate the benefits of applying the pressure with the tailstock.

[gridley51]

I suppose whether you use the tailstock or some other way of holding the drill will depend upon the quality of lathe you have.Interestingly,Dean,Smith and Grace who built some of the best lathes ever made supply a drilling bracket for clamping to the saddle.It has a No4 morse taper in it.
Mark.

[Spinnetti]

Guys, thanks for all the feedback.

A MT taper on the tool post would work, but it does apply a tangential load with a pretty long moment arm in the same axis as the tool holder moves as opposed to a linear one in the tailstock (with the moment arm being the distance from the tool center to the lathe bed and 90 degrees to the plane of motion), thus a solution using the tailstock will ultimately be the better, if not the only option. The Lever mod to the tailstock is perfect, and I'll likely do that this weekend.

Kiwi and Toasty, please take it out in the schoolyard? We're all adults here right? Lets call this thread closed ok?

[Kiwi]

Spinnetti
Your summary is better than I could have ever put it.
Many times when there is more than one opinion, this gives food for thought. I may now even try drilling using the saddle.
Cheers

[lerman]

Even better would be an adapter that you could put into the existing tailstock with a feed level and its own chuck.

That way you could use it with the hand wheel or the lever and convert from one to the other in an instant.

Ken