Continuing on JHowells comments, instead of holding the stummel with one hand and hitting the switch with another, get a "deadman's" foot pedal switch and you can hold the stummel with both hands. The deadman's switch is on when the pedal is depressed and off when your foot is off. I use it on my wood lathe and dremel all the time. It's also really helpful in those "oh, shiite" panic moments because your instinct is to get your foot off the pedal if you do something dumb.JHowell wrote:Perhaps try replacing the stummel on the bit, apply tailpost center to the depression from previous drilling, hold stummel securely with right hand, turn on lathe with the left. You may already be doing that, but it sounds like you're tilting the stummel slightly to cause the grabbing before the bit can center itself. As with Trever's post a while back, I wonder if your bit has too much material removed. Or perhaps the tailpost is the problem, if it's off center *that* could cause a bind.Tano wrote:Hmmmm!!
I don't know whether or not that's the problem. When I drill the bowl with any bit, as I get closer to the designated intersection of bowl and air hole I back off completely to check what is happening. When I reinsert the bit thats when the problem occurs. I can' see how anybody can reinsert a bit freehand back into a hole revolving at whatever speed without it not grabbing the wall and creating an imperfection. Its the reinserting several times that makes the whole thing very imprecise. Anyways, thats what the girl said to the sailor.
Squaring mortise and tenon during freehand drilling
I meant tail stock. When shaping first, then drilling, a common method of making the holes go where you want is by locating both ends of the imagined axis of the hole. That's why you'll sometimes see pictures of pipes partially shaped with lines drawn on them. The lines for the bowl intersect at the "poles." Where the bowl enters, a center drill is used to locate the hole exactly. On the opposite end, where the hole would exit if you just kept drilling, a little extra briar is left, or a dab of epoxy, or a wood chip is glued on, and another spot with the center drill is made (or a dent is made by pressing onto the dead center in the tail stock). If the tail stock is centered, the resulting hole will exactly follow the line between the drill tip and tail stock center. During drilling, the stummel is held with one hand and pressure is exerted with the tail stock ram at least until the hole is well established. A similar procedure can be used for the mortise and airhole drilling also. I apologize if I'm missing the question and overexplaining something that is already clear. Of course, some really good makers seem able to do the whole thing by feel from almost any angle. I've seen pictures of guys holding the stummel in one hand and a hand drill in the other, also pictures of guys holding the stummel against a bench motor.
