How to drill a hole in a cyllinder

[Giff]

I am not new to woodworking but very new to turning. ! I have a small Jet adjustable speed lathe. I need to turn a cylinder 60mm x 170mm long (I have done that ok) with a 32mm hole through the centre. Could anyone recommend the best way / or drill bit to achieve this. Thanks Geoff

 

[Paul Hannaby]

A forstner / sawtooth bit could be used. Hold the workpiece in the chuck and the drill bit in a jacobs chuck in the tailstock. If the hole has to go all the way through, you can either reverse the workpiece in the chuck or by planning ahead, make the cylinder too long, drill almost to the end and then cut off the undrilled end to the correct length. That way gets round the problem of drilling all the way through.
If the forstner bit isn't long enough, there are extension shafts available.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Get an oversized bit of wood to allow for a bit of deviation and bore it from both ends then plug it and turn it. If you have a hole through something that needs to be accurate it's invariably better to turn the item around the hole (IMO ).

 

[joethedrummer]

Get an oversized bit of wood to allow for a bit of deviation and bore it from both ends then plug it and turn it. If you have a hole through something that needs to be accurate it's invariably better to turn the item around the hole (IMO ).

Best way by far, nothing worse than a wonky hole in an otherwise good job.

 

[donwatson]

+1 for what phil.p said

 

[Giff]

Thanks Phil and everyone for the advice.....I probably started the wrong way as I turned the cylinder first...before I asked !..but
then used a Forstner and drilled from both ends. It worked ! Geoff

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you have the correct sized forstner you could of course drill say 1/2" in from either end and stop. You would then have centres for both turning and for drilling afterwards.