Best solutions needed

Lee Laird

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405
Location
Austin TX
I saw a neat lamp the other day and I'm in the process of making a similar one. The design is very simple but one portion of it is causing me mental grief. :doh: Picture the lamp as a tall rectangular structure broken into 5 flat square horizontal pieces and 16 vertical pieces. A flat piece is on the bottom as the base, four of the vertical pieces stand at the four corners of the flat piece. I was thinking of connecting the horizontal piece to the vertical pieces with small dowels running up into the end of the vertical pieces. The remainder of the lamp structure is repetition (another flat horizontal piece on the top of the first four vertical pieces. The next four vertical pieces on top of the second horizontal piece and so on ...). If I attach things as I've described, I need to bore very accurate holes in the ends of all the vertical pieces along with matching holes in the corners of the horizontal pieces. I've got a drill press, which may be the best solution, but mine is one of the older versions with no lasers to verify my exact position. I clamped a test piece to the drill press table and thought I had it centered and completely perpendicular to the table, but it was too far off from center and from the hole being perpendicular to the end.

Can I get some comments as to each of your "best" or preferred course of action to handle this type work. The vertical pieces are about 3/4" x 3/4" x 12" and the dowel size I've got in my design is 1/4".

Thanks in advance,
 
A quick reply, then off to work. This sounds like a job for a lathe Lee. Long accurate borings are a straight forward process. You might stop by the Austin Woodcraft store and see if anyone can give you a hand.
 
Personally, I'd skip trying to drill into the end and just make tenons on them. That way you can guarantee you're centered and have good square joinery. It'd be a little easier to glue up, too, since a good M&T joint is basically self-squaring.

It's a good chance to practice if you have any interest in Mission style furniture :)
 
I second the tenon idea. You could easily get a 5/8" tenon on each end.That would be the way to go You can get more glue surface, and it will be stronger
Chuck
 
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Frank,

I'd thought about possibly using the lathe but I'm kinda new to the lathe and wasn't sure how I'd accomplish it. I've got a decent four jaw chuck, but I'm not sure how to best hit dead center. I guess I could hold them in the chuck with the other end supported with a live center. Could I feed the drill bit in through the chuck? Since the piece is square and thin I didn't think it would work unsupported and the pieces used to keep items from flexing didn't seem like they would work. I'd be glad to hear any ideas. I'm sure I'm missing something. Thanks for your input.

Charles / Jason,

I hadn't even thought about using M/T. I'll certainly consider this option. I used them on a small table I made so it could work. Thanks.

Tony,

I'm not familiar with the Dowelmax kit. How does it work? Thanks,

I appreciate everyone's input. Thanks again,

I'll post some pics once I can make some holes.
 
I'd thought about possibly using the lathe but I'm kinda new to the lathe and wasn't sure how I'd accomplish it. I've got a decent four jaw chuck, but I'm not sure how to best hit dead center. I guess I could hold them in the chuck with the other end supported with a live center. Could I feed the drill bit in through the chuck? Since the piece is square and thin I didn't think it would work unsupported and the pieces used to keep items from flexing didn't seem like they would work. I'd be glad to hear any ideas. I'm sure I'm missing something. Thanks for your input.

My pleasure Lee. I just have a small lathe (Jet Variable-Speed Mini), but it has holes in the headstock and tailstock for vacuum and drilling applications. Depending on your lathe, you may be able to drill through the headstock, (as you described) and because your lathe will be unplugged for this task, (you aren't turning the wood, just holding it) you should be able to support the stock without too much difficulty, using blocks of wood, etc.
 
Frank,

I had my mind wrapped around the piece of wood spinning and feeding a drill bit into the end to make the hole. Now I understand what you were getting at. I've got a small Jet 1220 and a Talon chuck. What would you do to make sure the hole being drilled was centered and level? Also, most of my bits are standard length, so I'm not sure how I'd reach the wood.
 
Dowelmax

Frank,

I'd thought about possibly using the lathe but I'm kinda new to the lathe and wasn't sure how I'd accomplish it. I've got a decent four jaw chuck, but I'm not sure how to best hit dead center. I guess I could hold them in the chuck with the other end supported with a live center. Could I feed the drill bit in through the chuck? Since the piece is square and thin I didn't think it would work unsupported and the pieces used to keep items from flexing didn't seem like they would work. I'd be glad to hear any ideas. I'm sure I'm missing something. Thanks for your input.

Charles / Jason,

I hadn't even thought about using M/T. I'll certainly consider this option. I used them on a small table I made so it could work. Thanks.

Tony,

I'm not familiar with the Dowelmax kit. How does it work? Thanks,

I appreciate everyone's input. Thanks again,

I'll post some pics once I can make some holes.


Lee: You can check out the Dowelmax at http://www.dowelmax.com. The site has a slideshow that shows some of the things you do with it.

Tony
 
Frank,

I had my mind wrapped around the piece of wood spinning and feeding a drill bit into the end to make the hole. Now I understand what you were getting at. I've got a small Jet 1220 and a Talon chuck. What would you do to make sure the hole being drilled was centered and level? Also, most of my bits are standard length, so I'm not sure how I'd reach the wood.

In reviewing what Tony said about the Dowelmax (and other Self Centering Doweling Jigs) it now makes more sense to to me to keep your joints simple.

One other point is that you will need to get your lamp cord to the lamp socket, but this may be accomplished by boring one of the vertical pieces or 'hiding' it in a channel built-up of additional wood in one corner.

Your Jet JWL-1220 has a hollow tailstock which allows you to perform long hole boring for lamps and other vessels, but you will need to turn and support the vertical support 'leg'.

I'm off to the paying job now, so I'll spend some time thinking about your lamp.

Frank
 
Tony,

I looked at their site and it's out of my price range for this project. Thanks for giving your input.

Frank,

I'm leaning more towards using the little Jet. I saw the boring bit in your link. My usage is different as I only need to drill in about an inch on each end. Does that change what you might use for this drilling and are there any "sleeves" that could help keep the bit centered in the tailstock/headstock??

Thanks again,
 
Instead of drilling through the tailstock, you could put a drill chuck in the tailstock. You simply spin the wood and advance the drill bit as deep as you need with the tailstock screw. It'll be centered automatically.

Jacobs_Chuck_web.jpg
 
Vaughn,

Thanks. I guess great minds think alike. <grin> I just walked in from the shop to read this and that is exactly what I just tested. I bought a 12" long bit this evening to test the boring through the headstock idea and it fell flat. I couldn't be certain I would hit dead center. It was after that test that I decided to pull out the drill chuck. First time I've used it, but I'm sure glad I got it. I used some scrap for the test and it worked ok. The scrap was about 5 1/2 inches long and about 7/8" compared to the 3/4" x 12 inch pieces for the lamp. I'm still a little concerned that the longer thinner stock might flex. Any merit?

Thanks,
 
Lee, I believe as long as you don't spin things too fast, and don't feed the bit too fast, you'll be OK with the 3/4" material. One of the beauties of drilling this way is that the drill bit will always center itself. And since it will always seek the center, it can't drift up or down, or to the left or right.
 
Vaughn,

I tried a second piece of scrap yesterday evening with marginal results. The piece was not completely square, which I wondered if that might matter. The hole was off center. When I put the piece in the chuck, I tried to hold it fairly close to centered with the bit until I tightened the chuck. My actual pieces are square so can anyone tell me if the off centered issue was the shape of the piece?

Thanks. I'll likely give on of the real pieces a try this evening. I've heard that it might be a good idea to use a punch to make a slight dimple where you want the bit to drill. Any thoughts on that, too?

Lee
 
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