Robust Lathe Review - More Woodturning

with a Forstner drill to begin thedrilling process. When the tailstockwas backed away from the wood,the center point was still runningtrue to the center in the tailstock.This was good since I was goingto start drilling. I first drilled thehole to depth with the appropriatesize Forstner bit mounted in a drillchuck, which was mounted into theMorse Taper of the tailstock. Figure2 shows this operation.My long hole drill was one thatI had made many years ago whenI was doing a set of Newel Postsfor a stairway in a new house underconstruction. I needed a 5/16 inchdiameter hole that was drilled deepenough that I needed a 36” shaft.I had a welder set up the drill andmy 36” length of 5/16 inch rod ina lathe and weld the rod to the drillend. This worked very well for thoseseven foot Newel Posts that I hadto drill. I had drilled each of themfrom each end and the holes hadmet nicely in the center. This timethe piece was smaller in diameterthan those 5 inch Newel Posts, so Iwanted to make sure the drill enteredthe piece as straight as possible. Apart of my Christmas present fromMildred was the Colt Five Star HSS-M2 Pen Drill Set. Since these drillsdrill a very straight hole, I used the“O” size drill, the closest to the 5/16inch size to drill a hole the full depthof the drill; i.e., about 5 inches. Thisoperation is show in Figure 3.Once I had a pilot hole, Ineeded something in the tailstockto help center the drill. A quickmeasurement showed that once thecenter point was removed from theNova Live Center the drill was asnug fit through the hole. I was notset to drill the hole half way throughthe work piece. I put a mark on thedrill shaft at slightly over half theFigure 2. Drilling the larger hole one inch deep with an appropriatesize Forstner bit. The Forstner bit leaves a nice center point for thenext drill to center into.Figure 3. Drilling a pilot hole with an “O” size Colt Five StarHSS-M2 Pen Drill. The drill was able to drill a 5 inch deep holemaking a good starting point for my 5/16” three foot long drill.length of the wood to be drilled.That would mark the depth of drillingfrom the first end. On the secondend it would give me an idea as towhether I had intercepted the holefrom the other end or was aboutto drill through the side. Figure 4shows the drilling process.[Continued on Page 32]Page 31 More Woodturning February 2010