graffis Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 I need to drill a 3/8" hole in the end of a 5/8" diameter dowel. The hole needs to be an inch deep. The total length of thedowel is 3 1/2" long. What's the best way to accurately do this. I don't have a lathe but do have a drill press.Any help would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ncfowler Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 you could make a jig, I use one to drill out corks for humming bird feeders, a simple one is get a board that can be clamped down to the drill press table since your are drilling a 3 1/2 " I would recomend lamanate a second smaller board in the middle, once you have the board clamped take a small drill bit like a 1/16 and drill a hole in the center of the jig, comes the trickey part don't move the table or board, now you have a starting point,now follow up by drilling a 5/8 hole in line of the 1/16 hole this should hold your stock you may need to get a number bit to make the hole just a bit bigger if you are using a true 5/8 stock, once you have your jig drilled out you can put in your 3/8 bit and make the hole you want, I hope this helps, or maybe just confuse you more, lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Cancelleri Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 A lathe and drill chuck. That'd be my approach Sent from my 831C using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weithman5 Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 nc advise is what i have seen in the past. fundamentally. make a jig that will hold your stock. drill a hole in this the size of your dowel but after drilling do not move the jig. place the dowel in it. the center of the dowel should be in line with the center of your drill. change bits. proceed with happy drilling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post wdwerker Posted July 4, 2015 Popular Post Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 When you drill the dowel start with a small bit, maybe 1/8 then switch to 1/4 and finally 3/8. If you drill all at once you could slip off center or crack the dowel. Watch the drill press speed, medium to low rpm and use a slow feed rate. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phinds Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 The problem that I see with the proposed solutions is one that I have encountered. When I drill the hole to hold the dowel, the table is then too high to allow for the 3 1/2" dowel with a bit above it because my drill press has a fairly standard 3 1/4" stroke. If I then lower the table, the alignment gets a bit off. SO ... what I do is drill a 1/4" hole about 1.5" deep hole in clamped planks and then a 1" deep hole centered on that and the size of the dowel. Then I lower the table and use the bit extender to line up the holes with the chuck, clamp the boards, remove the bit extender from the drill press, insert the dowel in the plank hole and the drill bit in the drill press and away we go .... If the dowel is more than a couple of inches long, I usually use a vertical holder-jig that clamps to the planks and assures a vertical dowel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madkrafter Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 Check out Jimmy DiResta's video at about the 11:30 mark... You may have trouble chucking a 5/8" dowel... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIl-Go8QYKE 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted July 4, 2015 Report Share Posted July 4, 2015 You can turn down a tenon on the end, by rolling it against the fence of your mitet gague or crosscut sled, over the spinning saw blade. That would let you chuck it in the drill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
graffis Posted July 6, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2015 Thanks everyone for your input. I had trouble with the jig recommended initially becausethe dowel spins with the drill bit. So I built the "jig" in the attached pics. BasicallyI took a block of 2 x 4 and centered a 5/8" hole on it. I then ripped it across the diameter of the hole with my table saw and clamped it to the drill press as depicted in the pics. I "centered" the hole by eyeballing it. Not 100% accurate but good enough for my needs. Thanks again for everyone's help. Much appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ncfowler Posted July 7, 2015 Report Share Posted July 7, 2015 Thanks everyone for your input. I had trouble with the jig recommended initially becausethe dowel spins with the drill bit. So I built the "jig" in the attached pics. BasicallyI took a block of 2 x 4 and centered a 5/8" hole on it. I then ripped it across the diameter of the hole with my table saw and clamped it to the drill press as depicted in the pics. I "centered" the hole by eyeballing it. Not 100% accurate but good enough for my needs. Thanks again for everyone's help. Much appreciated. I like the way you think, that is a good idea sometimes a second pair of eyes comes up with a better way of doing something, got to keep this in mind the next time I need to drill holes in the end of round stock, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Staehling Posted July 7, 2015 Report Share Posted July 7, 2015 Too late I guess, but another way is to hold the bit in the vise and chuck the dowel in drill press chuck. That essentially simulates the lathe and requires no making of jigs. Using a center drill to start the hole is a good idea. That is what I would do if I didn't have a lathe. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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