Drill Chuck help

[Nicholas Briggs]

My drill press has a quill of only 2 inches. I hear a lot of people have great luck doing there pen blank drilling on the lathe. The problem I have is that it seams my tail stock only extends a little over 2 inches. I need to drill at least 2.5 inches. Is there a way to drill any deeper with my lathe? And what drill chuck would you recommend?

[Bonnie Campbell]

No expert at it (obviously since when I started using my drill chuck I did it wrong). But drill to the depth you can. Turn the bit out, then shift your tail stock closer with the bit inside the previously started hole. You'll do good like that. I sure prefer it over my drill press.

[Curt Fuller]

Like Bonnie says works. You can also drill to the depth the quill will travel and then loosen the tailstock a little and just push the bit the rest of the way through. Practice on a piece of scrap or two to get the feel.

When you buy a jacobs chuck for your lathe, get one that has the arbor drilled and tapped (they're usually 1/4 x 20). Reason being, you can make a draw bar from a piece of threaded rod that will hold the chuck tight in the headstock spindle and use it for turning small things like tops, finials, etc.

[Rich Souchek]

Bonnie's got it, just keep moving the tailstock over. Depth is limited by drill bit length.
This works pretty darn good for pens.
Rich s.

[Bonnie Campbell]

The problem I ran in to with my tail stock loose was throwing the drill chuck across the room :o

[Curt Fuller]

You're right about that Bonnie. I don't know what type of lathe you're using but if you have a hollow quill on your tailstock you can hold the chuck tight with a drawbar on that end too if the chuck arbor is threaded. It's the same problem, the combination of vibration and pulling out on the chuck makes it come out of the morse taper and then things get pretty wild at 500 rpms.

[Bonnie Campbell]

Wish I had known about getting a chuck with threads. Didn't know, and buying another one this soon is out of the question. So far, since having it pointed out how to use, I've done okay with it in the tail stock (with it LOCKED DOWN lol)