Drilling a Mortise

[Lance Norris]

I'm going to turn a coat rack on a Jet 1236 and need to turn a column longer than the lathes capacity. Ok... so I turn it in 2 pieces with a mortise on one piece and a tenon on the other and glue the two together. Seems simple enough. How do I drill the mortise on the lathe? Can I use a forstner bit in a chuck in the tail stock and use the forstner bit as a dead center? Or... I do have a full size drill press. I have seen people turn the table verticle and clamp the column to the table and drill that way. What would you do? Thanks

[Jim Becker]

Drill the mortise before mounting on the lathe while it's still a square and you can clamp it under the DP. Then use a cone on your live center in the tailstock to hold that end. Be sure you note the actual size of the hole so you can use calipers to do your tenon on the second piece. Do the mortise side FIRST and don't assume that the drill size is exact...they do wander a little sometimes, especially in end-grain.

[charlie knighton]

glue will make the wood expand so be sure to make some threads with a knife or as mm says make the threads with a pair of pliers on the tendon, you can still have a good fit and the glue will not make the tendon expand and crack your piece:D

[Dennis Peacock]

glue will make the wood expand so be sure to make some threads with a knife or as mm says make the threads with a pair of pliers on the tendon, you can still have a good fit and the glue will not make the tendon expand and crack your piece:D

Sounds like true experience right there. :D

[Jim Becker]

...make the threads with a pair of pliers on the tendon, you can still have a good fit and the glue will not make the tendon expand and crack your piece

Oh, my...doing that to your tendons really hurts!!! LOL :o But that's an excellent point about giving the glue a little more bite and a place to go while putting things together. Many dowels, which are in effect, small lose tenons, are manufactured with this in mind.

[Dan Forman]

Drill the mortise before mounting on the lathe while it's still a square and you can clamp it under the DP.

I wanted to use this strategy when I was making my tool handles, which were too long to fit on the drill press table top. I can flip the table 90 degrees and clamp the workpiece on so it is true on that axis (left to right), but how do you accurately set the orientation on the other axis (forward or back)? There isn't really enough surface to register a square.

Dan

[charlie knighton]

Sounds like true experience right there

before i started woodturning i did some flatwork and used hand threaded dowels to connect different parts of bookshelves , i have much more satisfaction with turning:D

[Jim Becker]

I wanted to use this strategy when I was making my tool handles, which were too long to fit on the drill press table top. I can flip the table 90 degrees and clamp the workpiece on so it is true on that axis (left to right), but how do you accurately set the orientation on the other axis (forward or back)? There isn't really enough surface to register a square.

Yea, it can be tricky. You may also be able to drill the mortise by clamping the square in your bench vice and then use a hand-held drill with a twist or brad-point bit as long as you're not talking "large"...1/2"-3/4". Use a speed square to help you keep the hole relatively straight. Try to get it as accurate as you can since you're going to use that hole with the cone in your tailstock as a mount point, but if you stick with 3/4" to 1" depth, it's likely forgiving enough.

[Lance Norris]

but how do you accurately set the orientation on the other axis (forward or back)? There isn't really enough surface to register a square. Dan

Why couldnt you chuck a long piece of "all-thread" in the drill press and just eyeball it? You should be able to get pretty close that way.