Horizontal drilling

[Crakkers]

Hi

Complete novice here!

Recently worked with a guy who has just left my workplace who had and took with him an adjustable drilling fixture that attached to the rails of the lathe. It allowed a board to be fixed to it so you could drill into the end/edge of the board.

It worked by a lever that pushed the fixture and therefore the board into the drill.


I don't appear to be able to find similar anywhere.

Any ideas about where I could buy one?

Cheers

Crakkers.

 

[nev]

Different lathes have different beds/ rails, so there probably isn't a one size fits all option. do you know what lathe it is? got a pic?
I would suspect that it may be a homemade device, a modified lever operated tailstock or something specific to that particular lathe, but I am guessing.

 

[Crakkers]

Thanks for reply.

Lathe is record power cl3.

The headstock rotates , a drill is fitted which protrudes over an aluminium plate that has the ability to be altered in height and through a lever pushes the work into the drill.

Does that help?

C

 

[AndyT]

Robert Wearing published a design in the Woodworker a few decades ago which sounds like this. He called it a dowel drilling jig. I made one, which I still have. It worked well, though I've not wanted to make dowelled doors for a few years.

It was pretty simple - a box to go over the bed, with slots for vertical adjustment, a right angle fence and a parallel fence. I might even still have the magazine if you are desperate.

 

[nev]

as above
Book available on Amazon, and you can look inside, even search to look at the pages to see if thats the type of thing.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Woodwor ... 1861081294

 

[DTR]

I've never applied it to woodturning, but I've used the same technique many times to drill holes with my engineers lathe. Another option, as nev touched upon, is to use a tailstock drill pad, which is commonly available with a morse taper shank to fit in the tailstock

 

[Crakkers]

Thanks so far folks!

C

 

[Doris]

Robert Wearing published a design in the Woodworker a few decades ago which sounds like this. He called it a dowel drilling jig. I made one, which I still have. It worked well, though I've not wanted to make dowelled doors for a few years.

It was pretty simple - a box to go over the bed, with slots for vertical adjustment, a right angle fence and a parallel fence. I might even still have the magazine if you are desperate.

I'd be interested to see some photos of this. As google isn't bearing fruit.

 

[AndyT]

Robert Wearing published a design in the Woodworker a few decades ago which sounds like this. He called it a dowel drilling jig. I made one, which I still have. It worked well, though I've not wanted to make dowelled doors for a few years.

It was pretty simple - a box to go over the bed, with slots for vertical adjustment, a right angle fence and a parallel fence. I might even still have the magazine if you are desperate.

I'd be interested to see some photos of this. As google isn't bearing fruit.

Here you are Doris, I've brushed the dust off and put it together again.

It's a simple MDF box, screwed together, and in my case screwed down to the worktop under the lathe bed. You'd need to make something to suit your own lathe which you can assemble around it. In my case, the worktop is horizontal, so if I use a spirit level to make the top surface of the box level, it's parallel to the lathe's axis and the drill. (The level of the top surface of the box is adjustable on slots, to cope with different thicknesses of work.)

This is a plan view, showing the long fence, for drilling holes into the end of the work. The fence is adjustable on slots, using coach bolts and wingnuts.

For holes into the edges, a simple right-angle fence is made a snug sliding fit to the box. (Take some care when making the box - the front and back sides need to be straight and parallel for this to work.)

To limit travel of the work or the fence, you can use a cramp, or cramp on a block, or put a screw into the MDF - whatever works best for you.

At the time, it suited my level of woodworking - I needed to make a batch of simple cupboard doors and didn't fancy making so many M&T joints by hand. This let me get holes which were all lined up properly, square to the end or edge, with a fence and a stop ensuring repeatability.

 

[MusicMan]

Thanks for posting this, Andy. I have been wondering about building something similar for 'horizontal boring'.