boring full length holes on a Lathe

[Clarence Martinn]

Sears Craftsman Wood Lathe 38 inches betwen centers. How do you drill a hole 36 inches deep on that Lathe? Hole would be 3 inches in diameter.

[Mark Greenbaum]

"36" deep - on a 38" c/c lathe" you're gonna need a bigger boat.

[John K Jordan]

Sears Craftsman Wood Lathe 38 inches betwen centers. How do you drill a hole 36 inches deep on that Lathe? Hole would be 3 inches in diameter.

From my limited experience I think that would be a challenging task for most people. I can think of one way but not easy. With any method you'd probably need to support the wood firmly from one end which might be difficult with that lathe.

What's the outside diameter? What kind of wood? And most important, what do you want to make?

There may be other ways that are a lot easier, for example cut down the length, hollow each half, then glue back together. Or build it with staves if the design would permit.

You may be able to buy a laminated tube, I understand George DeCristoforo did that for his telescope project https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?243872-George-s-Telescope-Consolidated-Threads&p=2723726#post2723726
Read the whole thread here: https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?243872-George-s-Telescope-Consolidated-Threads&p=2564897#post2564897

JKJ

[Marvin Hasenak]

Can it be done in pieces or does the project call for a single piece of wood? Does the inside hole have to be 3" diameter or will "close" be good enough?

[JohnC Lucas]

that would be extremely difficult especially on that lathe. Assuming you could find a bit and a shaft I would bet serious money it would not bore straight. A far better solution would be to do it in short sections and glue them together. What I would probably do would be to cut in half lengthwise and use the table saw. run it past the blade at an angle gradually increasing the height. Well actually run it through straight first removing as much as you can to get close to the shape and then try the angle thing.
If you started with a much larger piece of wood. drilled a little, add an extension, drill more add another extension etc until you got done. Then mount this between centers using the holes as your centers. Then you could true up the outside to match the holes.

[Mark Greenbaum]

Possibly on a Shopsmith, and keep advancing the headstock after each boring stage.

[JohnC Lucas]

I had a shopsmith. That was it's one useful feature. Well that and being able to put a sanding disc on the headstock and advancing it into the work for special operations. Other than that it was a very mediocre machine. I made a lot of things with it and had it stored in a very small space. It sure was nice to step up to stand alone machines.

[Mark Greenbaum]

Horizontal Boring is one of Shopsmith's claims to fame, but 36" x 3" diameter is a bit much to ask of any non industrial machine.

[Paul Williams]

Cut the piece in half, use a router to make half of the hole in each piece. Glue the pieces back together.

[Clarence Martinn]

It would be for a solid Wood tubular fishing rod and reel case. Has to be at least 3 inches inside diameter.

[Brice Rogers]

I would either buy white PVC pipe or black ABS pipe and glue a cap on one end and a threaded clean-out plug on the other end. If it absolutely has to look like wood for some strange reason, consider gluing on a wood veneer over the plastic pipe and perhaps turn the end caps of wood.

[Marvin Hasenak]

I would get 9 blocks 4" thick, and drill the required 3" inch hole in the center of each one. Then I would glue them together 3 at a time. To keep the 3" holes aligned I would insert a 12" length of 3" diameter Delrin in the holes and stack them. If money is no object, I might splurge on a 3 foot length of Delrin, but at $25 a foot and being cheap I would only use 1 foot piece. After the 3 pieces are glued together, I would stack and glue one on another one with the piece of Delrin aligning the joint Then repeat for the last one.


Use Delrin because nothing sticks to it, the Delrin can easily be hammered out of the stack of glued blocks.

Or buy an aluminum rod case and glue the blocks directly to the aluminum case and then turn it.

[Rick McQuay]

I would say you don't. Glue the blank from 2 pieces that have a kerf sawn down the center and drill out the ends to the right size. Does it matter if the center is exactly the right diameter?

[JohnC Lucas]

buy the PVC and glue veneer to it. You could turn wooden caps for each end.

[Eugene Dixon]

Staves. Make it with staves. Glue them up. Turn od.

[Grant Wilkinson]

It's impossible to drill a hole 36" deep on that lathe. Since you say that the distance between centers is 38", I assume that's means with a live center in the tailstock and maybe a spur center in the head stock - at least something reasonably short in both ends.

If you put a Jacobs chuck and a drill bit in either end, you don't have 36" between the centers.

[John K Jordan]

...I would get 9 blocks 4" thick, and drill the required 3" inch hole in the center of each one. Then I would glue them together 3 at a time.

If doing it this way I'd use blocks in endgrain orientation so the thing is more likely to stay round, especially at the cap end. For strength when gluing turn the ends of each block so each will fit into the next for 3/8" or so.

You might still want to look at the laminated tubes and just use the lathe to turn end cap and rim/lid.

JKJ