mount drill press on lathe bed?

Was asked about making a run of 40 pieces that must have 6 holes drilled equil distant around a 3 inch diameter cylinder. Sort of like giant tinker toy pieces. My lathe has a indexed pulley in the head stock. But drilling the holes square seems like a hassle. so I was wondering. I have a small HF drill press that might be able to mount to the lathe bed to drill the holes at the proper angles. Alternatively, I can use the lathe to mark the points and then fasten a "V" block of wood on the big drill press. Or is there an easier way to accomplish this that I overlook?

I made a rig like this one for the same project. Drill Guide (davidreedsmith.com)

Here are a couple of suggestions. Start with about a 1 1/2” square piece of hard wood, depending on your lathe swing for length. Turn the bottom 2/3 to a diameter that will fit your banjo. In the upper third install a drill guide for the diameter you want to drill. I have done this and it works ok. At a cost, I have the OneWay Drill Wizard. It is a very good tool for something like this, cost is a little over $100. I use mine every 5-6 weeks for something. One thing to note is most keyless drills won’t fit the wizard clamp. I have my old 1989 keyed Craftsman drill in mine.

https://oneway.ca/index.php?route=pr...path=59_73_128

You could make a hexagon, the same diameter as your cylinders, screw or hot melt glue to the cylinder and do it on the drill press with the depth stop.

robo hippy

I took a 1" cylinder of steel and drilled a hole through it on a drill press (to make sure that the hole was perpendicular to the cylinder and properly centered). Then I stuck it into my banjo and adjusted the height of the hole to the centerline of the spindle. Easy peezy. Then it was just a matter of using the lathe's indexing function. So, I would index to the proper position and drill a hole, index again. etc.

The hole through the 1" diameter steel cylinder ensured that the drill bit entered the wood with the correct alignment.

In my case I was only drilling about 15 or 18 holes, so I wasn't concerned about the drill bit enlarging the hole in the steel cylinder. If that happened, all I would need to do is to drill a new hole through the cylinder.

You have received some good ideas especially if you are going to do a lot of this work. I just wanted to stick a few colored pencil stubs in the rim of a bowl. I clamped a piece of hardwood to my tool rest and drilled through it lined up with where I wanted the holes. It worked ok. For more stability and to avoid wearing it out you could add a piece of steel or brass tube to the hole.