Speeding up drilling on a lathe..

[Spinnetti]

Hi All.

I've been doing lots of deep drilling on my lathe, and its a total pain having to spin that little wheel on the tailstock over and over. Any parts out there, or ideas to make it with some kind of rack an pinion and a big lever? I don't need huge amounts of force, just want it to work like you can do on a mill. I have a Grizzly 12x37 or so gap bed mill.

TIA..

[Kiwi]

Add a flange to the handwheel to create a drum. Thread a chord over a pulley attached to a rafter and down to the drum. Add a weight to the other end of the chord. When you turn the handle the chord will windup the weight. To unwind just pull the chord.
I do this with my compound feed when doing repetitive passes.

Option two would to start the hole in the lathe and finish in a drill press.

[toastydeath]

Mount the drill in your cross slide.

[pastera]

Add a lever feed to your tailstock
http://www.kinzers.com/don/MachineTo...etailstock.jpg

Aaron

[Runner4404spd]

get a quick change tool post and get a holder for an MT taper and mount the drill into that then you can use the saddle to run back and forth as opposed to the little tiny crank at that back.

[Kiwi]

What size drill is being used?
I would have thought using the saddle to hold a drill (eg. 3/8" plus) would be putting excess loading on the working parts.
Using the tail stock gives a direct force with good leverage.

[toastydeath]

The saddle is usually equal to or more rigid than the tailstock. I'm not familiar with the smallest lathes, but I don't see why it wouldn't work just fine. If you can securely hold the drill, there's no problem doing it this way. You get power feed for the full length of the drill, and a quick retract.

[Kiwi]

I guess it's depends on the material being drilled, the size of the drill and the size of the lathe.
When using the saddle there must be considerable twisting taking place as the rack for the drive is way out line with the drilling axis. Are the saddles guide-ways designed to with stand these forces?
When using the tail stock these forces are inline.

[Baketech]

I know I will get flayed for this, but if I have a lot of repetitive drilling like that, I use my cordless drill to motor the tailstock in and out...

[gridley51]

If you can`t use the toolpost to mount a drill,or make bracket for the crosslide to hold the drill,then make a bracket to connect the tailstock to the saddle.Leave the tailstock free to slide and tow it with the saddle in power feed.
Mark

[Spinnetti]

Thanks Guys!

I'm just drilling .250 holes in a aluminum the full depth of the bit - takes LOTS of chip clearing. Those were all creative solutions to the same problem. Having worked in a production environment years ago, I have no patience for doing anything slowly! The best of the bunch is what "Pastera" posted - thats EXACTLY what I was looking for, I just needed to visualize it - Thanks! I suppose if that is ever not strong enough, I can get another tail stock or put the wheel back in, but generally it should be perfect.

PS, "Baketech" I've done worse, like duct taping my right angle grinder to my tool post when I was doing the ball screw conversion on my mill! (it worked great too!)

Here's what I'm making: Almost exact scale landing gear for R/C planes, in this case a WWII fighter - the FW190 - Still have a few more ops to do on these and are a great case to CNC my lathe. (Pics are of early working proto and latest version in progress)

[Baketech]

Cool little project...FW190's are awesome!