Drill press as a lathe

[Eshmiel]

NO, not a proper one and only for small items like tool handles and drawer knobs, honest!

But are they truly useable? I have a large floor standing drill press (Nova Voyager) that has plenty of power and a variable speed, electronically controlled, from 50 - 5,500 rpm. But is a gubbins to provide a vertical tool rest and a bearing steadying the chuck to prevent sideways forced on a workpiece undoing the morse taper a safe and effective thing?

At present I'm making quite a few tool handles; and I like to make my own knobs for boxes, drawers, cupboards and such. I have no room for a lathe so I've been carving handles & knobs, which takes time and never produces truly symmetrical items. I've use small rasps to make some very small knobs and that seems safe enough although I worry about the chuck falling out of the motor arbour.

Any advice, especially from those who've tried such a thing, is welcome.

 

[Amplidyne]

Before I had a lathe, I used to do this for knobs and so on in my inherited Walker Turner drill. It's 35 years ago or more, and so I've forgotten exactly how I set it up. I do remember it being awkward though.

 

[Katomi woodsmith]

I used one on my pillar drill… ruined the bearings as there is side ways pressure

 

[Stigmorgan]

The whole design of a drill press is for vertical pressure, the horizontal pressures you'll apply by using it as a lathe will quickly damage the bearings

 

[Eshmiel]

I'll accept that advice and avoid the thing.

Does the same apply to sanding drums, even with a bottom bearing to keep the whole caboodle vertical? I have such a thing but rarely use it. Perhaps "rarely" is a good idea!

 

[mwinfrance]

if you want to use a drill as a lathe for small things , you are as well off getting a cheap power drill with variable speed, mounting it horizontal on a board and using it as a tail stock less lathe, You could even knock up a tailstock and some rails w and a toolrest with some tube and some bar stock and a couple of bearings. Youtube has loads of videos by people who have made "small things" lathes from horizontal mounted drill.A Japanese guy ( whose name escapes me ) has done some very neat ones, as has someone from South America. I think that the Canadian who makes wooden band saws may also have done an "alternative" lathe.

Re the drum sander, I'd put a bearing on the top and some metal supports out to the frame on that , would last far longer.

 

[Richard_C]

if you want to use a drill as a lathe for small things , you are as well off getting a cheap power drill with variable speed, mounting it horizontal on a board and using it as a tail stock less lathe

My first "lathe" which I used to make many small items was an old 2 speed Wolf drill in an equally ancient horizontal drill stand. The drive centre was one of those 2 pronged 6mm hex screwdriver bits you get in the sets you use for dismantling things that aren't designed to be dismantled. The tailstock was a wooden block with some threaded bar and 2 wing nuts out of my bits box, so it could be adjusted, the live centre was a the writy-end of a metal bodied ball point pen. Tool rest was a length of aluminium angle I had lying around. It's easy to make up a mini faceplate that fits in the drill chuck, I adapted a Meccano brass wheel with holes. No proper gouges, I used 2 reground old chisels scraper style. Cost=nothing. Hours of fun. My 80+ year old wooden desk had knobs on all its drawers.

Then I bought a real one ....

 

[Eshmiel]

My first "lathe" which I used to make many small items was an old 2 speed Wolf drill in an equally ancient horizontal drill stand. The drive centre was one of those 2 pronged 6mm hex screwdriver bits you get in the sets you use for dismantling things that aren't designed to be dismantled. The tailstock was a wooden block with some threaded bar and 2 wing nuts out of my bits box, so it could be adjusted, the live centre was a the writy-end of a metal bodied ball point pen. Tool rest was a length of aluminium angle I had lying around. It's easy to make up a mini faceplate that fits in the drill chuck, I adapted a Meccano brass wheel with holes. No proper gouges, I used 2 reground old chisels scraper style. Cost=nothing. Hours of fun. My 80+ year old wooden desk had knobs on all its drawers.

Then I bought a real one ....

As it happens, I too have an old Wolf drill, probably from the early 70s. It has multispeeds, reverse and a hammer action, all switchable. It also has a knackered bearing ahind the chuck, making it wobble; and I can't get the bluddy chuck off. Well, now I must, to use it in a drill-lathe as described by you and MWinF.

I also have a Metabo drill I no longer use as a drill but have clamped to a bench for use with spongey sanding discs on the spoons & bowls and as a means to twirl MDF discs charged with honing paste, to sharpen knives. That has one speed of around 500 rpm but an enormous torque (for a hand drill) of 70 Nm. It too might form the power for a drill lathe thingy with bearings to make all steady and precise.

You have distracted me from my relief carving intentions now!

 

[Katomi woodsmith]

I had one of those black and decker lathes that you put the drill into. They made sanders and criclur saw attachments
The lathe bounced like anything

 

[Eshmiel]

if you want to use a drill as a lathe for small things , you are as well off getting a cheap power drill with variable speed, mounting it horizontal on a board and using it as a tail stock less lathe, You could even knock up a tailstock and some rails w and a toolrest with some tube and some bar stock and a couple of bearings. Youtube has loads of videos by people who have made "small things" lathes from horizontal mounted drill.A Japanese guy ( whose name escapes me ) has done some very neat ones, as has someone from South America. I think that the Canadian who makes wooden band saws may also have done an "alternative" lathe.

Here's another vid on making a drill-driven lathe.



All the design principles look good but perhaps the finished gubbins would be somewhat improved by use of more precisely cut and drilled parts, using hardwoods rather than softwood waste parts. I'd also be tempted to use factory-made adjustment knobs, as I have quite a few kicking about, with better knurling for grip when hand-tightening than those shed-made ones in the vid. The tool rest looks a bit primitive too. As I recall from my previous real=lathe use, round and polished bar is a better rest than a roughish right-angle edge.

I'll look at those other vids on building such a thing, in detail.