Free hand drilling on lathe?

[Rick M]

Sounds crazy to me except I saw a guy on youtube do it on by holding the drill bit with vice grips and hand feeding it into the end of a spindle. He said the rotation will keep the drill centered and he didn't have any problems. My question is, how do you feel about this? The reason I ask, I've almost completed my first lathe project, a tool handle, and need to drill the hole but I do not have a drill chuck. As my tailstock is a 0MT, drill chucks to fit are not cheap and it may be awhile before I can afford one.

Which is another question: I see chucks come in different sizes, is there a reason not to just get a mid size chuck that will hold up to a 1/2" bit? Or put another way, is there any reason to buy the small chucks?

 

[Mike Davis]

I use the vise grip method all the time for small holes. My lathe has a #4 MT in the tailstock so I have a large drill chuck for it and use it for boring large holes. But, anything up to 1/2 inch or so I use the vise grips.

 

[ashley_phil]

I've seen on bowl demonstrations using a 1/2" or 3/8" bit mounted in a handle to drill to your center depth I've never done but i plan to make one in the near future and hope to quit gouging out the bottom of my bowls

 

[Rick M]

Thanks. Later I saw this video where a guy uses a drill bit in a handle like you mention Phil.

[video=youtube;9P8GuHF0J94]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P8GuHF0J94[/video]

 

[Rick M]

Went for it and it worked fine. This saves me from buying a drill chuck for a little while. I have 3 socket chisels on the way and only one handle so I made this one as practice. This is an old (Stanley?) chisel that I rarely use because it's junk.

 

[aplpickr]

My wife turns several hundred ornaments per year. She uses #58 holes for the hanging eyes. Most chucks do not hold these small bits well. We turned some handles and glued in the bits. Works good!

 

[chesterboyd]

sure you can drill it on the lathe, but does it need to be that precise? I just drill with a hand drill and the work piece held in my vise. It isn't centered but still works fine. As far as why to but small chucks-----most large chucks will not hole very small bits.

 

[Rick M]

Well it was very easy to drill it on the lathe so why not and have a centered hole. I hand drilled the old dowel handle and have been looking at a crooked chisel for 10 years, I wasn't going to do that again!

 

[hockey1]

My wife turns several hundred ornaments per year. She uses #58 holes for the hanging eyes. Most chucks do not hold these small bits well. We turned some handles and glued in the bits. Works good!

I have had success using small drill bits by stripping about an inch off the jacket of a piece of wire and placing the bit into said jacket then chuck it up and drill away.

 

[awldune]

If you use very small bits a lot, it might be worthwhile to get a pin vise. Sort of like an X-Acto knife handle but with a collet for small drill bits:

http://www.amazon.com/Excel-Pin-Vise/dp/B0002IXN7W