Drilling with Tailstock

[matt999]

Last night, I decided to make a little birdhouse ornament. I have never bored a hole in stock using a jacob's chuck/drill bit mounted in the tailstock. I chose a forstner bit and went at it. It took a long time, and I had to push much harder than I would have imagined to get the bit into the stock. The wood is fairly soft (sweetgum) and semi-green. I have a brand new set of forstner bits, so sharpness isn't the issue. How exactly are you supposed to accomplish this?

 

[Bill Boehme]

Well, unlike Radio Shack, I don't have answers -- just more questions. Did you back the bit out often to clear the chips? Did you run the lathe at a very slow speed? Did you apply gentle pressure and let the wood come to the bit (hmmm . . . . . just like in turning)? If you answered "no" to the above three questions, the Forstner bit may no longer be as sharp as it once was (assuming that it once was -- sometimes new Forstner bits are no good from the beginning).

Bill

 

[William Young]

yep; i know that feeling. i had the same problem with cheaper ones.
so i got a new set of 12 porter cable industrial quality ones and they cut like butter.
they even came with a speed chart for the various sizes.

you are probably aware of it , , but just in case , , the larger the size, , the slower the speed

 

[john lucas]

I just sharpened my bits but some bits don't cut into endgrain all that well unless they are really sharp. I use diamond hones to sharpen the flat surfaces and a white wheel in my dremel to sharpen the inside of the beveled circular part.

 

[Andy Hoyt]

I do a fair amount of endgrain drilling and have given up on forstner bits for this. Too slow and wreaks havoc on them. I now use a good old standard twist bit and have no troubles at all. Goes very fast and haven't have to sharpen the bit in ages. Mind you, I'm just drilling a rough depth hole and am not worried about bit drift. 99% of the time it's a 3/4" hole about 4" deep.

 

[matt999]

Forum Expectations

As usual, this forum always exceeds expectations. I guess it isn't the forum, but the collective group of quality individuals that makes up this turning community. Thanks as always for your replies and assistance.

I don't 'want' to have to sharpen my new forstner bits. I'll try some standard twist bits and see how it goes.. Any words of wisdom (or stuff 'not to do')? A "buddy of mine" recently got a bit kinda crossed up inside an endgrain boring job and it threw his chuck into his brand new dust collector hose and big gulp dust collector thing. :cool2:

 

[Brian Hahn]

Good old twist bits

It's hard to beat good old HSS twist bits for drilling endgrain.

This spring I made a bunch of tool handles from hickory - a very hard wood. Drilling the holes in the handles for the tangs was a real challenge with Forstner bits, and my bits are SHARP. On the other hand, twist bits went into the hickory endgrain like a hot knife in soft butter.

On the plus side, twist bits are available in many more sizes than Forstner bits. On the down side, twist bits get expensive for sizes over 1/2 inch.

 

[MichaelMouse]

I bought the oversize brad point bit set everyone sells. Chinese, and fairly soft, especially if you don't clear the chips occasionally and overheat them. Advantage is, they sharpen well with a chainsaw file. Since they cut on the spurs rather than the center, like a regular 60 degree bit, they're less inclined to wander on their way into the piece as well.

 

[hockenbery]

For larger twist drills I use ones with Morse tapers.

A 1" diameter #2 Morse taper runs about $12 from Wholesale tools store near Lakeland but also have a web site. http://www.wttool.com/

Larger diameter bits come in #3 morse taper. One advantage for the #3 morse taper in the OneWay tailstock. Wholesale tools also carries a #3 to #2 Morse tape adapter. This is a socket that accepts the #3 morse tape bits and the fits into the #2 tailstock ram.

happy turning
Al

 

[bob elliott]

Al,
Thanks for the source for the drill bits.
FYI: those bits are listed under Taper Shank Drill (my search under morse taper drill bit revealed no results).

 

[Jonathon.C]

I had a hypothesis... (I hollow out with gouges so I can't tell you from experience)... when you are using a forstner bit you have 360 degrees worth of teeth working for you. When you are drilling, all these teeth have to work together or it won't cut very well; but getting them all to work together is kind of like trying to use all of the cutting edge of a gouge to cut at once. Also if there is any vibration in the shank of the bit the bit is just gonna vibrate. (I am having a hard time explaining what I want to ) On top of this, endgrain is tough stuff and the teeth on the forstner bit will probably just tear out the grain. My idea would be to try something like a spade bit. This way you only have two teeth cutting; also the way a spade bit is designed it works a lot like a scraper... this might work really well for end grain. Just make sure you cut a little short of your intended depth so you have room to take the teeth grooves out. I really didn't explain this very well. Hope you understand what I mean. If someone else has could clarify/correct this theory, that would be great (again I have never tried it)! Well, good luck with your projects.