Butt Sleeve boring issues

blackhawk357m

blackhawk357m

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Ok, so I have some butt sleeve material that is needing to be bored out to 3/4". Watching Hightowers vids and reading his book, I used a 1/2" bit then I was going to bore the hole to 3/4".

When trying to drill the butt sleeve, the motor bogs slightly and the sleeve starts to back out of the headstock and ride up the bit. Now I do have the headstock chucked almost to the point of bending the chuck rods when tightening it, so I know it's tight.

The bit that i'm using is from a new dewalt set made for steel/wood/pvc (don't know the material, package doesn't say)

Could it be that I'm using the wrong TYPE of bit? Has any of you makers run into this problem?

Thanks for any help,


Nathan
 
Last edited:
blackhawk357m said:
Ok, so I have some butt sleeve material that is needing to be bored out to 3/4". Watching Hightowers vids and reading his book, I used a 1/2" bit then I was going to bore the hole to 3/4".

When trying to drill the butt sleeve, the motor bogs slightly and the sleeve starts to back out of the headstock and ride up the bit. Now I do have the headstock chucked almost to the point of bending the chuck rods when tightening it, so I know it's tight.

The bit that i'm using is from a new dewalt set made for steel/wood/pvc (don't know the material, package doesn't say)

Could it be that I'm using the wrong TYPE of bit? Has any of you makers run into this problem?

Thanks for any help,


Nathan
Click to expand...

Is that a boring bar or a brad point drill bit ?
 
I do it in steps

If your simply loading a 1/2" drill and going to town, that could be the problem. I've got one of Chris's Mid-Size lathes and I always drill in steps when going to that size. After center drilling, I start with a 1/4" drill, then 3/8" and then 1/2". I've found that it's also important to put some resistance on the tailstock by "slightly" tightening the locking knob. If not, the larger drill bits will want to pull into the stock, lock up and stall the motor.

These small lathes are nice, but trying to drill a 1/2" hole from solid is pushing their capabilities (IMHO :p)
 
Bill the Cat said:
If your simply loading a 1/2" drill and going to town, that could be the problem. I've got one of Chris's Mid-Size lathes and I always drill in steps when going to that size. After center drilling, I start with a 1/4" drill, then 3/8" and then 1/2". I've found that it's also important to put some resistance on the tailstock by "slightly" tightening the locking knob. If not, the larger drill bits will want to pull into the stock, lock up and stall the motor.

These small lathes are nice, but trying to drill a 1/2" hole from solid is pushing their capabilities (IMHO :p)
Click to expand...

In addition, peck drill it. I.e., drill in 1/2" then pull the bit out of the piece and clearing all chips with air, then drill another 1/2", pull out, repeat.
 
The real problem

is not so much the power of the lathe motor, but the type of drill feed. If your lathe had a traditional metal lathe Tailstock you could control the rate of drill feed much more accurately. The traditional tailstock uses a screw fed quill, so easier to go slow. A lever style will get away from you in a heartbeat once a larger drill bit wants to dig deep, and they love to bite and take off! You already have experienced that.
You were given good advice above to use the step drilling method, smaller bits are far less aggressive, though they can surprise you so be careful. I have metal lathes and cue lathes. I always have to hang onto the lever while boring a hole, with my Deluxe, or my Unique lathes. I slowly let it feed, then back off, and repeat many times rather than try to cut the hole quickly. No matter how benign the bit seems to be cutting. I have had too many surprises and some ruined beautifully figured wood by letting down my guard. Be especially carefull when you reach the end of your cut and exit out the end of the wood, GO SLOW, and back off and peck a little at a time. Some woods like Ebony, will heat up and blow apart when you exit out the far end with your drill bit. When core drilling, never try to go through a long piece, I end my hole just before I exit out of the end, and then cut off the last inch or so. I like to be cautious, nice wood is just too darn expensive. If I need to use an entire piece I will glue a sacrificial piece of scrap to the end, and stop the cut when I just barely go through my piece , then cut off the scrap. So far this has worked for me when I cannot just plan ahead and use a longer piece of wood to bore. You could also stop short then turn the wood around and start a hole from the uncut end and if everything lines up perfect they meet in the center. Hope all this helps some?? Just another opinion, experiment and you will learn which way works with your tools.
 
Drill in steps and flip it around to drill from both ends so you don't punch out the end. If the holes don't match it doesn't matter because you're boring it later anyway.
 
I started a fire this way in my shop. Boring a 6 inch piece of ebony. The chip coming out was red hot coals and then lit some sawdust on the floor......to my great supprise the ebony was still rock solid and is still in my shop in perfect shape. I would have thought it would have cracked at that heat. You live you learn but slow is the name of the game....and peck drill and use air to keep drill bits cool......don't try to drill it all at once
 
lol, yeah my bloodwood piece smoked a bit, so i just did that one slower to let it cool from time to time. the stepping really helped! and yes when putting in the bigger bits it would hit the grab all of the sudden, backed off and grabbed again. Also, in stead of just going all the way through I flipped the piece around and attacked it from both ends so the hole would meet in the middle and not splinter or crack out the end.

Chris called me, and said to tighten the drill lever almost to the point of having to really push hard on the lever to get it to move in the sleeve. that helped as well.

But thanks to all the advice here, I was able to get 1/2" holes in all the sleeves! TY so much guys, you all really are TOP NOTCH!!!

Nathan
 
One of my drill bore tools will do well for you.
I am not sure of the power of the motor on your lathe, but sharp tools go a long way.
Split-pointed drills require alot less power to drill holes in most materials, also produce less heat.
I see people making the mistake of thinking it is only wood and run very fast. Reality is the rpm is often required to be less.
The A002 series drills from Dormer,are a HSS drill bit, split-point, have a tin coating for the 1st 1/2 inch or so from the tip. They last a long time and the coating also reduces friction and heat build up. For what they are, I think the are quality cheap drill.
 
I use bees wax. When my bits begin getting warm part way into the cut, I put a stick of bees wax against them and let it melt a little over the bit, then begin drilling again. It lubricates the cut for smooth cutting and noise eliminator. No more squealing drill bits. When you bore the final diameter and face ends, you cut away any residual wax.

Working with wood is not unlike working plastics or metals. In the machine shop, we always used cutting oil, especially when drilling. In a hole, there's no where for heat to dissipate so it builds up, expanding not only the material being worked but also the drill bit. This increases friction, which leads to all kinds of trouble. By lubricating, you get longer life out of your tooling while keeping stress low on the material you're working. It really makes job a lot easier & predictable.
 
qbilder said:
I use bees wax. When my bits begin getting warm part way into the cut, I put a stick of bees wax against them and let it melt a little over the bit, then begin drilling again. It lubricates the cut for smooth cutting and noise eliminator. No more squealing drill bits. When you bore the final diameter and face ends, you cut away any residual wax.

Working with wood is not unlike working plastics or metals. In the machine shop, we always used cutting oil, especially when drilling. In a hole, there's no where for heat to dissipate so it builds up, expanding not only the material being worked but also the drill bit. This increases friction, which leads to all kinds of trouble. By lubricating, you get longer life out of your tooling while keeping stress low on the material you're working. It really makes job a lot easier & predictable.
Click to expand...

I'm definately going to try this next time Thank You!
 
If you have the same Dewalt drill set that I have, it will want to grab no matter what. I have the yellow case bradpoint set, and every drillbit in the set pulls itself into the material all the time. I have gone back to regular bits and don't have that problem anymore.
I use the wax trick also, but I use parafin wax, I save the beeswax for recovering multi-piece slate pooltables.
Dave
 
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