Shop Built Drill Guide?

[Pete Staehling]

Anyone built and/or used this shop built alternative to the One Way Drill Wizard? http://www.davidreedsmith.com/articles/drillguide/drillguide.htm

If so how well did it work? Did the UHMW hold up well?

 

[Mike Johnson]

Pete,

To improve on the design, you could easily press a couple of bearings into the UHMW polymer block to support the drill chuck shaft. When drilling the holes for the bearings you drill an undersized hole for the bearing and use a press to squeeze them into the hole. If by chance you overshoot the inside diameter of your bearing hole you can use some thin foam sheet material between the bearing and the hole when you press the bearings into place and the foam sheet will take up the slop in your bearing mount hole. You want to aim at a couple of thousandths undersized in the inner diameter which can be a challenge if you have not done this type of work before. You need to use an undersized drill bit and slowly sneak up on the final dimension with a reaming bit or skew type tool. UHMW or Delrin can easily be turned, machined and drilled on a wood lathe.

 

[Mike Johnson]

Pete,

One other improvement would be a protractor degree wheel mounted on the drill guide mounting post so you can set the degree of angle for the tool accurately each time. On the Oneway tool a mounting bolt is loosened and the protractor indicator can be zeroed based on the position your banjo is aligned to the lathe, to adjust the angle of the drill you loosen the locking adjustment for the tool post and rotate the entire assembly in the banjo to the desired angle mark.

 

[Pete Staehling]

Yes that occurred to me. I wondered how well the UHMW held up. I am a big believer in good enough is good enough. So if the UHMW holds up well I may not bother. Also a metal bushing might be an in between solution. If using a bearing or a bushing I might consider materials other than UHMW for the body of the guide.

Heck I might just make one out of ipe or persimmon with or without a bushing and see how it works. The metal parts can always be fitted to a different body later if it doesn't work out.

 

[Larry Copas]

Doesn't get much simpler than this. When the hole gets egg shaped drill a new hole someplace else in the block. I can use a hole a few hundred times before its time to renew.

 

[Pete Staehling]

Doesn't get much simpler than this. When the hole gets egg shaped drill a new hole someplace else in the block. I can use a hole a few hundred times before its time to renew.

As one who appreciates simple solutions I like it. It certainly is a way to get started without much investment in time or money and I intend to give it a try. It looks like can be used as is or it could be embellished a bit with a metal post and maybe replaceable metal drill bit guide bushings in various sizes. I'll start with the simplest approach and see how that goes. Who knows I may find the simplest version it is all I want. It would be pretty easy to make up a new one or customize an old one for any given job.

 

[john lucas]

I've been using one just like Larry posted for 20 years or more. I wrote an article.on projects using my drill.guide and an index.wheel. can t remember if its come.out yet or not.

 

[Mike Brazeau]

Here is what I did using bushings from Lee Valley. http://ghwg.ca/techniques/Drill_Guide.pdf

 

[Pete Staehling]

Thanks guys. Great info. The Lee Valley insert and bushings look very useful not just for this drill guide but for other fixtures. I use a lot of jigs and fixtures in my work (other than turning) so I think I'll order a set of the bushings and several of the inserts so that I can use the bushings on more than one application.

 

[Sandy Jarrell]

And another ready-made toy tool for drilling on the lathe is the Sorby Precision Boring System.