Making wooden tubes.

[caveman]

In my current wooden clock project I need to make some wooden tubing but am finding it almost impossible to put the centre hole through.
I need to put a 6mm hole through the centre of some 12mm OD hard wood dowel, up to a maximum of 120mm long. The other tubes are only 70mm long but even these are proving difficult to drill. I only have a pedestal drill or hand drill for this job.

Once drilled I intend to mount the tubes on a length of 6mm threaded bar to go into my mini lathe for turning the OD down to 10mm - the final required diameter. The lathe only accepts up to 6mm (as I said, a mini lathe!

I have even tried drilling a 12mm hole in a wooden block clamped on the base of the drill press, putting the dowel into that but the drill still seems to wander off centre by the time it gets to the other end.

Any suggestions would be appreciated - no I can't afford a proper lathe with head and tail stock chucks, more's the pity!

 

[MikeG.]

Yeah, I've run into this, and I don't have a lathe at all.

The only answer I could come up with was to split the piece of wood in half, run an under-sized groove through each half, glue the two halves back together again, then drill in along the groove.



PS.....If you do this, then keeping glue out of the groove is important. Be as careful as you can with spreading it, but place a coarse piece of string in the groove before you put the two halves together. You can then pull this backwards and forwards to remove squeeze-out.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Don't suppose you can drill the hole in a even thicker dowel, put in on the lathe then turn it down to 10mm?

 

[sunnybob]

get the length of wood
cut it into 2" sections
use a jig to drill a hole through every piece at the same spot.
Using a guide rod, glue them all back together
Put on the lathe and finish the outside dimension.

 

[MikeG.]

No, don't do that! That's trying to glue end-grain to end-grain. It will be very weak, and probably won't survive turning on the lathe.

 

[marcros]

How many do you need doing?

Is it just drilling a 6mm hole centrally into 12mm dowel?

 

[kevinlightfoot]

You really need to use a lathe and a self centering drill like a gun drill .I don't think you will succeed by using an ordinary jobbing drill as the drill point will veer towards the weakest part of the end grain which will be the widest growth ring this is unlikely to be the dead centre of the dowel.You could try a stub centre engineering bit to locate dead centre and then follow through with a longer drill but I still think you will struggle.Gun drills are used by bagpipe makers and bore true centre holes over much longer distances than you require,they are well worth the investment if you need to do a lot ,or find a local turner who can do it for you.

 

[sunnybob]

Its a clock, theres no stress on the joints. 2 part epoxy will expand into the end grain and make a good joint.

 

[caveman]

Many thanks and think you've given me the answer (even an offer to do it for me if I fail)! I'll get bigger diameter dowel, 14/16mm that way I'll have plenty of wall thickness to cover any wandering off centre when I turn it down to 10mm OD.
Many thanks. (you can tell I'm not an experienced wood worker.
My wife has offered to buy me a small lathe but then you still need a method of feeding the drill into the piece from the tailstock.

 

[kevinlightfoot]

Using a gun drill you don't need to go through the tailstock.

 

[caveman]

Thanks kevin, I'll look into these gun drill thingies!

 

[kevinlightfoot]

There are a few on ebay at the moment,you need access to a compressor,when used for drilling metal liquid coolant is forced along the void inside the drill,when boring wood compressed air replaces this.The compressed air is not for cooling purposes but to keep the cutting tip clear of debris.These tools cut very quickly,I can bore a perfectly centered hole down a mahogany blank 12" long in about 20 seconds.I used to sell the pre bored table lamp blanks to Woodturners.I am not too clever with computer technology or I would set up a YouTube video to show the process perhaps someone else on the forum could do this I am sure lots of people would be amazed at how quick and easy it is

 

[marcros]

any chance of a link, Kevin? I saw one in use at a show a couple of years ago and it was impressive.

 

[caveman]

There are a few on ebay at the moment,you need access to a compressor,when used for drilling metal liquid coolant is forced along the void inside the drill,when boring wood compressed air replaces this.The compressed air is not for cooling purposes but to keep the cutting tip clear of debris.These tools cut very quickly,I can bore a perfectly centered hole down a mahogany blank 12" long in about 20 seconds.I used to sell the pre bored table lamp blanks to Woodturners.I am not too clever with computer technology or I would set up a YouTube video to show the process perhaps someone else on the forum could do this I am sure lots of people would be amazed at how quick and easy it is

Checked these out and a bit out of my price range just to put a hole through a bit of wood! Also you need a compressed air supply to keep the tip clear (for wood). I'll stick with a bigger diameter starter for the time being and see how it goes.
Thanks
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6MM-GUHR...262742?hash=item23930263d6:g:UoIAAOSw-kdXxGfw

 

[hawkeyefxr]

I know you may well want to make these parts but would a model shop have something you could use. They have all manner of things.

 

[caveman]

I have searched the web for "wood tubes" and every combination of the words and nothing found. No prob, I'll have another go with the digger DIA dowel.

 

[MikeG.]

Why not try my suggestion? It at least has the benefit of having been done successfully. It may be more work than you wanted, but it works.

 

[Dalboy]

If I was making these I would drill on the lathe by using a long boring system for make lamps then turn using the centre hole so that it keeps the hole central. if you don't have the equipment then Mike's method would be the better option as the drill will follow the already made hole to the correct size.
Drilling to any depth with the grain can lead to it going off centre for shorter holes the best thing to use is a bullet end drill bit keep the speed down and clear the hole by retracting the bit often don't try to go through in one go as any build up will exaggerate the wonder

 

[caveman]

Again, thanks for all the advice and suggestinons. I'll give that a go Mike if the bigger diameter doesn't work but as you say, it's quite a bit more work but then my time costs nothing

 

[kevinlightfoot]

Sorry Marcos I don't know what you mean by a link ,as I said I am useless with this modern technology,I am taking part in the Secret Santa and I am dreading trying to photograph my present and put said picture onto the forum my grandchildren are better than me I'll ask them to do it for me.Its not that I'm stupid I just don't have any interest in it so I won't bother to learn.I didn't know there was someone demonstrating the gun drill .I demonstrated it about 30 years ago so it's not exactly new.