Drill press lathe accessories

[Toukejin]

I've recently become the owner of an entry-level drill press and stumbled into a couple of ways to convert it into a basic lathe, either through cannibalizing another drill or just buying an attachment.



I know serious cutting on this thing would be a very bad idea, I just thought it might be useful for sanding / polishing and maybe some detail work like filing grooves and whatnot. Has anyone had any experience with these things?

[Sidd]

thats pretty cool but i wonder if it would be strong enough for lathing metals

[Jedi-Loreen]

I would say no.

It's not meant for that.

[FenderBender]

you can say that again


...oh wait

[Jedi-Loreen]

What?

[FenderBender]

You had a duplicate post, don't try to deny it Just cause you can use super council powers and delete it LOL!

[DJMoonbass]

to me... that looks unsafe. its just not what its designed for. and if that thing is spining fast enough that become quite quite the projectile in the shop.

example: not two weeks ago, we had a newb lathin some steel in between two live centers, there like cones and you put a center drill hole on either end of the part and the cones hold the part perfectly centered. well he tried to take to big of a cut and the part FLEW from the lathe and across the shop. luckily nobody got hurt.

granted you prolly wont cut anything. but i highly suggest you exercise caution,

[Toukejin]

I just meant using it to rotate hilts at low / moderate speed for doing surface work, like sanding and polishing. Like I said, I have no intention of trying to actually lathe metal.

[xl97]

I dont see why not..

its really now different.. and possibly MORE secure than spinning a sinktube on a hand drill..

the base will be key for supporting the part....like a bullnose live center or something..

[pipster79]

about all one should use that for IS sanding and polishing. and even then i wouldnt really trust it. to polish or sand you really want a high speed, and holding a metal hilt on that would not be safe at a high speed. not like a real lathe that has a chuck meant for holding large round metal and thats meant for turning/shaping/polishing. a lathe also has a live center at the opposing end of the chuck to keep the work piece locked in and take the strain of the forces put on the workpiece by tooling/sandpaper/polishing
even the hand drill with sink tube method in my opinion is very unsafe, but to each their own i guess