# Holding Drill Chuck when drilling



## wfsteadman (Nov 25, 2016)

Folks,
  This morning I have been watching some You Tube videos where they are using the lathe to drill blanks.  I notice they hold the chuck with their left hand and I was wondering what that does?  Are they pushing it back against the tail stock to make sure it stays tight or what? Do I push back against the tail stock or am I just stabilizing?  Thanks in advance.

Wally


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## SteveG (Nov 25, 2016)

Holding it this way does both functions. And at the point where you are withdrawing the bit from the work, it becomes VERY important. Just think...the blank has tightened up on the bit and you start to back it out. The next thing happens in a flash! The taper has pulled out of the tail stock, bit is gripped in the spinning blank. Disaster is eminent!! So DO Grip the chuck through the whole process, and additionally exert strong pulling force as you withdraw the bit. If things are going bad, you will know right away, and shut the lathe down quickly!


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## lorbay (Nov 25, 2016)

SteveG said:


> Holding it this way does both functions. And at the point where you are withdrawing the bit from the work, it becomes VERY important. Just think...the blank has tightened up on the bit and you start to back it out. The next thing happens in a flash! The taper has pulled out of the tail stock, bit is gripped in the spinning blank. Disaster is eminent!! So DO Grip the chuck through the whole process, and additionally exert strong pulling force as you withdraw the bit. If things are going bad, you will know right away, and shut the lathe down quickly!


And that is why I seat my tapers with a small tap of a mallet.

Lin.


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## magpens (Nov 25, 2016)

Yes, holding the chuck is very important.


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## jttheclockman (Nov 25, 2016)

lorbay said:


> SteveG said:
> 
> 
> > Holding it this way does both functions. And at the point where you are withdrawing the bit from the work, it becomes VERY important. Just think...the blank has tightened up on the bit and you start to back it out. The next thing happens in a flash! The taper has pulled out of the tail stock, bit is gripped in the spinning blank. Disaster is eminent!! So DO Grip the chuck through the whole process, and additionally exert strong pulling force as you withdraw the bit. If things are going bad, you will know right away, and shut the lathe down quickly!
> ...




Not full proof. You can go past the point when withdrawing the bit by backing out the drill bit and yet it still has not cleared the blank. By all means hold the chuck going in and coming out.


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## monophoto (Nov 25, 2016)

Several objectives here:
1.  Prevent the drill chuck from spinning.  Most jacobs chucks are mounted on a double-ended arbor the with morse taper going into the tailstock and a short, stubby taper (typically JT33) going into the chuck body.  If the chuck spins, either (or both) of these tapers can come loose causing the chuck to spin.
2.  Prevents the chuck from uncoupling when it is withdrawn from the blank - which must be done frequently to clear swarf.
3.  Stabilizes the chuck to drill a cleaner hole.

By the way, this is the one situation where I like to wear a glove while turning.  Normally, a glove is considered a safety hazard, but it actually can protect your hand if the jacobs chuck starts spinning.


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## Dan Masshardt (Nov 25, 2016)

In my YouTube video on drilling pen blanks on the lathe, I really tried to highlight how important it is. To keep a hand on the chuck with a little bit of pressure toward the tailstock.  

Incidentally I'm teaching an older guy to turn pens and I keep reminding him about this.   He has a habit of taking his hand off it and had a real scare - almost gave me a heart attack watching.   

Early on I learned this lesson very strongly when the Jacobs chuck went flying across the shop!!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Penturners.org mobile app


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## Wood Butcher (Nov 25, 2016)

All of these answers are absolutely correct and will increase the safety of drilling on the lathe. As far as accurately drilling the hole, holding the chuck and twisting it either forward or backward will increase the centering and roundness of the hole. The locking screw on most lathes is a threaded shaft that fits into a slot milled into the tailstock and has to have a bit of "slop" so it doesn't bind. The slop also allows the drill chuck to rotate back and forth if not held to a forward or backward stop position. The last consideration is that strong grained wood will cause the bit to want to follow the grain and can create a rough few mms at the drilled hole opening.  Drill slowly and hold tight until the point of the bit is well into the hole then you can loosen your death grip a little.
WB


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## Ted iin Michigan (Nov 25, 2016)

Just curious - isn't there a bit of danger to your hand when you do this? If the Morse taper is seated I don't see much of an issue. But if it isn't, won't the chuck spin if the bit binds? And if you have that "death grip" on it..... I do have a chuck but don't use it for drilling pen blanks.


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## Skie_M (Nov 25, 2016)

Ted iin Michigan said:


> Just curious - isn't there a bit of danger to your hand when you do this? If the Morse taper is seated I don't see much of an issue. But if it isn't, won't the chuck spin if the bit binds? And if you have that "death grip" on it..... I do have a chuck but don't use it for drilling pen blanks.



1. You don't keep a deathgrip on it ... just firm pressure to hold the chuck (and bit) steady, with light pressure towards the tailstock just to keep the taper seated securely.  

If the drill chuck starts to spin, simply release the chuck and let it spin in your hand (very loose hold) ... the options you have at this point are:

* Release the chuck and see what happens (dumbest move ever...)  Don't forget to keep your insurance up to date.

* Grab the chuck firmly to see if the drill comes loose (scary idea, but it DOES work ... if it doesn't work, then the grab will force the headstock to a halt along with your motor or belt .... or your hand will spin around the chuck, which is the scary and dangerous part.  You CAN damage your lathe motor if you do this a lot.)  Follow this up by re-seating the chuck.

* While still keeping the chuck spinning centered on the lathe, reach over with your OTHER hand and hit your emergency stop (safest option) .... follow this up by re-seating the chuck.



2. Drill chucks, unlike 3-jaw scrolling or other large body chucks, are streamlined attachments.  They should have nothing sharp or knobby sticking out of their sides to catch/grab your hands and fingers.  They should be quite safe to hold steady.

I routinely still hand hold a plastic bodied keyless drill chuck (taken off of a keyless chuck drill) while drilling freehand ...  I only really do this anymore for items that don't need to be precisely drilled.  For instance, I'll chuck up a large diameter bit with a tape flag on it for depth gauge, and drill my depth in a small bowl or cup blank.  I don't need to be precisely centered, though with my blank spinning it's actually pretty difficult to get things really off center... things tend to want to find the centerpoint of the spindle.  The chuck body is smooth black plastic, not overly heavy, and easy to use.


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## Herb G (Nov 26, 2016)

Man am I glad I read this thread.


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## Phillip Kelley (Nov 26, 2016)

*Draw bar...*

What a coincident!  Thursday, after the turkey, I had decided to order a new chuck for drilling that has a 1/4" x 20 thread for a draw bolt instead of a "tang" that is found on some chucks.  My lathe has a hole thru the hand wheel on the tailstock, so for future drilling I intend to use a draw-bar for the next level of safety!


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## monophoto (Nov 26, 2016)

Phillip Kelley said:


> What a coincident!  Thursday, after the turkey, I had decided to order a new chuck for drilling that has a 1/4" x 20 thread for a draw bolt instead of a "tang" that is found on some chucks.  My lathe has a hole thru the hand wheel on the tailstock, so for future drilling I intend to use a draw-bar for the next level of safety!




Smart move.  

My first lathe was a mini - 3/4x16 and MT1 - and when I upgraded to a midi I had to manage the transition to 1x8 and MT2.  I found that my Jacobs chuck had a separable arbor, and was able to buy a replacement MT2 arbor, thereby avoiding the expense of buying a new chuck.  But when I got the new arbor, I found that it was drilled for a 3/8x16 drawbar rather than the 1/4x20 thread that the original arbor had.  Not a big problem - drawbars are easily made (and it's easier and faster to make one than to try to buy one).  And fortunately, my new lathe would accommodate a 3/8" diameter drawbar.  But I have to wonder what would have happened if the lathe bore had been smaller?

Incidentally, a suggestion that I saw somewhere is to put a length of heat shrink tubing on the portion of the drawbar that actually slips inside the bore - the tubing prevents the treads from rubbing against the bore and possibly damaging the lathe.  Heat shrink tubing is normally used as electrical insulation and can generally be found in the miscellaneous electrical accessories section of big box stores.


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## howsitwork (Nov 26, 2016)

masking tape on the drawbar works too.

I actually use a gripper glove for holding chuck if drilling difficult woods- lignum vitea is a "challenge" to drill. Being so oily it actually self lubricates and the drill cuts an exact ( or slightly small hole). You have to clean the hole with spirit to get the glue to take properly. It's the only wood where I routinely use the next larger drill ( by 0.2 to 0.2mm) to drill the hole for the tube.

Gripper glove has a sort of plastic / pvc coating in a mesh over the palm and fingers even when oily it enables a good grip.

You can get drill arbors with removable tangs ( really handy sometimes) .

Just a thought.
Ian


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## Herb G (Nov 27, 2016)

Phillip Kelley said:


> What a coincident!  Thursday, after the turkey, I had decided to order a new chuck for drilling that has a 1/4" x 20 thread for a draw bolt instead of a "tang" that is found on some chucks.  My lathe has a hole thru the hand wheel on the tailstock, so for future drilling I intend to use a draw-bar for the next level of safety!



I checked my chuck & sure enough, it's a tang end, not a threaded end.
I might have to buy a threaded end chuck to be safe & sure.
Thanks for posting the pic. I had no idea there were different models of chucks. Pretty sweet.


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## Phillip Kelley (Nov 27, 2016)

*Threaded tang?*

Do you have a source for the arbors with the threaded tang?




howsitwork said:


> masking tape on the drawbar works too.
> 
> I actually use a gripper glove for holding chuck if drilling difficult woods- lignum vitea is a "challenge" to drill. Being so oily it actually self lubricates and the drill cuts an exact ( or slightly small hole). You have to clean the hole with spirit to get the glue to take properly. It's the only wood where I routinely use the next larger drill ( by 0.2 to 0.2mm) to drill the hole for the tube.
> 
> ...


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## monophoto (Nov 27, 2016)

The two places that I can think of who carry replacement drill chuck arbors are Grizzly and Little Machine Shop.


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## KenV (Nov 27, 2016)

Camera supplies is where I found 3/8 by 16 to 1/4 by 20  bushings.  Photography folks use them to convert camera mount threads.  Loctite and only need one draw bar.

There is a challenge using a drawbar in the tailstock if you desire to use the internal threaded ram to advance the drill chuck.  Great safety measure in the headstock!!


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## Skie_M (Nov 27, 2016)

Ken makes a good point ... if you're going to be drilling on the lathe, you can't really use a drawbar in your tailstock drill chuck.  As the tailstock quill (ram) advances, the drawbar would need to be longer and longer ... not particularly feasible.

This is why it's common procedure to use a drawbar in the headstock (it doesn't move around) and simply hold the drill chuck while drilling using the tailstock.


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## WriteON (Aug 7, 2017)

Ted iin Michigan said:


> Just curious - isn't there a bit of danger to your hand when you do this? If the Morse taper is seated I don't see much of an issue. But if it isn't, won't the chuck spin if the bit binds? And if you have that "death grip" on it..... I do have a chuck but don't use it for drilling pen blanks.



Yep...Holding the chuck or anything that can break loose and spin is extremely dangerous. Don't learn anything the hard way. Do not think it is ok and safe. Be sure to have medical insurance....and a ride to the ER.


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## dogcatcher (Aug 7, 2017)

If you plan on using the screw effect of the tailstock quill you can forget the drawbar, like KenV said, the drawbar will lock the quill in place.


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