Tool post drilling in a small lathe

[Batmanacw]

I have responded to this as well.
I served my apprenticeship at a major lathe manufacture, I not only learned to machine but I also built brand new lathes, the last three went to the US navy for ship board use.
If the engineers thought this was a good idea the lathe manufactures would be all over it.
If you look at the physics of it, you would realize why.
PS with my 35+ years in machine building scrapping and field service, I can't tell you how many times I have heard "we have been doing it that way forever have never had any problems" the statement is seldom true....and now I am here to repair what?
As I said before put some indicators on your slide and watch the affect.
MOM said, " you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink"
Now ,I just smile and shrug my shoulders.
Coming from a lathe company you would be laughed out of the buildings for saying it was faster....

Shrug all you want but it does work. I'm not pushing 3" drills through tough steel in one step like we used to do on the massive lathes at the forge tool and die shop.

I'm pre-drilling to clear the web and there is very little pressure on the drill.

I'm not sure why the rotational forces on the drill are somehow abusive to the machine. Once you clear the web the axial forces are lower with a 1" drill than they were with the 1/4" drill.

 

[benmychree]

For me at least, it is definitely faster, and easy to set up, I set my QC tool holder by setting up a tool holder up facing the chuck, moving it against the chuck and tightening the block down to the compound, once the height is set, and the adjustment locknut tightened, all that remains to be done is to find the horizontal center, which is easily done with a smallish center drill; drilling in the lathe is not a highly precision operation, a few thousandths off center is no big thing in most cases. Where time is saved for the most part is in backing out of the hole to clear chips and returning to drill deeper, I have done this since my apprenticeship back in the mid '60s, and it beats the hell out of dragging a tailstock back and forth to say nothing of loosening the clamp bolts and retightening them repeatedly. The strain on the cross slide and compound need be no more than a heavy cut in turning a diameter.

 

[Charles scozzari]

Your resistance to the concept has been noted and rejected.

I can drill bigger and more accurate holes with less effort than with the tail stock, on my little lathe. The feed control keeps the engagement to 0.0025" per revolution, where as hand turning the tailstock can result in a higher chip load and stalling the little lathe.

Next week I will drill a 3" deep 1" diameter hole in 1045 steel on my big lathe and I will thoroughly enjoy watching it do all the work for me. Lol.

You might not understand how it's possible but I actually use both.......

I didn't remove my tailstock. I grab it when I want to.

Mine is not resistance and rejected it may be. I just look at it as common sense. Thank's.

 

[Batmanacw]

Mine is not resistance and rejected it may be. I just look at it as common sense. Thank's.

I simply showed that it works, and explained why I like it. You do you. No judgement from me.

 

[Charles scozzari]

I simply showed that it works, and explained why I like it. You do you. No judgement from me.

No harm, no foul. Thanks

 

[Larry$]

Maybe one side of this discussion is talking about very small lathes and the other side is talking about larger, more powerful ones??
I have a 1440 and tried drilling using the tool post. Prefer using the more solid and for me quicker method of using the tailstock & a chuck. Always on center, no fooling around. Lots of mass backing up the bit.

 

[Charles scozzari]

Maybe one side of this discussion is talking about very small lathes and the other side is talking about larger, more powerful ones??
I have a 1440 and tried drilling using the tool post. Prefer using the more solid and for me quicker method of using the tailstock & a chuck. Always on center, no fooling around. Lots of mass backing up the bit.

Very true, I do the same on my 1440 and have to admit backing out is a pain on deeper drilling. Thank's.

 

[Batmanacw]

Maybe one side of this discussion is talking about very small lathes and the other side is talking about larger, more powerful ones??
I have a 1440 and tried drilling using the tool post. Prefer using the more solid and for me quicker method of using the tailstock & a chuck. Always on center, no fooling around. Lots of mass backing up the bit.

The carriage is pretty massive on my old lathe.

As far as speed of set up, my mt holder will always be on height once set. All that is required is to put in a center and point it at the tiny tit in the center of the part. No need to line up better than that.

Lining up the mt is almost as fast as sliding up the tailstock and locking it down.

I like pre-drilling holes when possible because the bigger drills go through much nicer with a much nicer surface finish and a rounder hole. It's not faster but I get great results.

One thing that is really surprising us how rigid the drills are on my little lathe in the AXA tool post.

 

[RaisedByWolves]

Very true, I do the same on my 1440 and have to admit backing out is a pain on deeper drilling. Thank's.

How much mass is in the handwheel?

On our15"? 17"? Mori Seiki the handwheel probably weighs 5lbs.

A quick flick towards you and the tailstock quill is retracting the bit out of the hole with a quickness.

Im going ot replace the aluminum handwheels on my Prazi SD400 with cast iron wheels just for this purpose. Well that, and the tailstock is horribly unbalanced with a chuck in it.

As to the tool post drilling, not a fan honestly.

 

[Charles scozzari]

How much mass is in the handwheel?

On our15"? 17"? Mori Seiki the handwheel probably weighs 5lbs.

A quick flick towards you and the tailstock quill is retracting the bit out of the hole with a quickness.

Im going ot replace the aluminum handwheels on my Prazi SD400 with cast iron wheels just for this purpose. Well that, and the tailstock is horribly unbalanced with a chuck in it.

As to the tool post drilling, not a fan honestly.

Your talking about real lathes, not the 1440 imports that primarily target the home shop owners like myself. Your hand wheels are more like flywheels. Thank's.