drilling help

[nz_carver]

hey all im llooking at making a walking stick for my class mate
noyhing to flash but the knob will be a pool ball:rolleyes:

now how can i drill in to this in a safe way??

any help will be grate

[turnerted]

One suggestion
Mount a scrap of wood in your chuck and bore a hole with a forstner bit slightly smaller than the diameter of your pool ball and slightly deeper than half the diameter of the ball .Hold the ball in the hole with your left hand and drill to the size required by winding the tailstock in with your right hand.
Have a spare ball in case you botch it up
Ted

[rsser]

How big will the hole have to be?

There might be some serious twisting forces.

Ted's idea is a neat one. Maybe add some double sided tape between his jam chuck and the ball if the forces are too great to control with a handgrip.

[hughie]

Piece of cake if you have a chuck and drill chuck for your tailstock.
Mount the ball in the chuck and drill it out, it will be dead centre if you use the tailstock. :2tsup: simple process.

[rsser]

heheh ... you're an optimist hughie. Assumes a decent tailstock.

And wouldn't a scroll chuck's jaws mark the ball?

[wheelinround]

http://gpwoodturning.sitesuitestores.com/persistent/catalogue_images/products/%7Briderjaw3%7D.jpgDave if you not confident you can do it bring it over I have 3 ways to go about it.
I just hope its not an old Ivory ball :C

Edit have a set of the large buttons from Gay Pye

[Big Shed]

heheh ... you're an optimist hughie. Assumes a decent tailstock.

And wouldn't a scroll chuck's jaws mark the ball?

Not with soft jaws

CWS Store - Nova Soft Jaws | Carroll's Woodcraft Supplies (http://www.cws.au.com/shop/item/nova-soft-jaws)

[rsser]

Not exactly standard kit Fred and not worth it for a one-off.

Drill press and vice would do fine too, with some soft packing on the jaws, if NZ-carver had them. Drill a pilot hole and then the final.

So what's the diameter of a pool ball? 50-60mm?

[rsser]

2.25" on average acc to Wiki.

Would need hard jaws of shark or spigot type plus soft packing.

VM soft jaws are 30mm thick so might just get there.

Think TT is on the ball ;-}

[cookie48]

Take care indeed. I tried drilling out a Lawn Bowl. Started small went bigger. Bloody thing split.

[nz_carver]

thanks all im looking at starting it in the next week or so

[Ozceltic63]

Did a few of these when i was a toolmaker.
Held in a three jaw chuck with some tape
over the chuck jaws so they didnt ruin the
surface.
Drill slowing, (we used a specially sharpened drill
with a different cutting angle to stop the
drills from catching and digging in). We used
to drill them and tap a screw thread into
them for gear knobs. :D
I recken for home i would use a stuff chuck
to hold them as one of the other guys
suggested. Drill and tap to suit the top
of the walking stick.

[hughie]

.
. you're an optimist hughie. Assumes a decent tailstock.
I have done them before, as long as the tail stock lines up within 1/2mm or so and he takes it slow in feed and revs all should be well


And wouldn't a scroll chuck's jaws mark the ball?

wouldn't as the balls are not that soft, but soft to the point that he may have to back off the drill a tad. Anyway he can wrap the ball in one layer of masking tape or sparkies tape etc