Side Driller for the Lathe

[8ntsane]

Hi Guys

This is a side drilling attachment I put together for on the lathe work. Good for drilling the side of a part for a set screw, or turn it 90 degrees and do bolt patterns on your chuck mounted work piece.

The keyless chuck was 20 bucks at the local Princess Auto
The boring bar holder was a Busy- Bee item for AXA tool post.
Another chunk from the scrap bin, turn down to 3/4 OD, and fitted the the block.
In the pic, I havnt cut the hex on the end yet, but its needed to keep yoor hand drill from scoring it up.

Another usefull tool, for under 50 bucks



Paul

 

[Tom Griffin]

Paul,

Good idea! You might consider adding a universal joint to the shaft. McMaster Carr sells rubber flex type here. Or you could permanently attach a socket head cap screw to the shaft (silver solder), and use a ball driver hex in the hand drill for a sort of universal joint (cheaper but not near as cool).

Tom

 

[Galileu]

Hi,

I have a similar tool post driller, actually I'm making an improved one, and I use a flex drive attached to the hand drill on the other end.

Good post,
José

 

[8ntsane]

I have found, with mine but its a bit different desgn, that having the chuck in that position limits the amount of drilling you can do.

I made mine so I can move it back and normally the chuck face sits just at or somewhat back of the QCTP.

Even then I need to use stub or screw machine length drills

Yours does look quite professional however.

Jim
Funny you mentioned that. My lathe has a ton of cross slide travel, so I seldom run out of travel, But I do have another cross driller much the same as yours. I do use it now and then when drilling into the side of a large diameter work piece.
My other cross drilling rig mounts up on my 4-way turret tool post. But when needed, I can swap tool posts faster than tearing down the set up, and running over to the mill.

Good point you made though. Because sometimes the length of your drill bit can cause you to run out of cross slide travel to back up the tool. I have how ever, shortened up a few standard drill bits that I commonly use, turned them into stubby drill bits, and that gets me away with using the cross driller I posted, most, but not all the time.

Paul