September 2020: Dog the Drill

Dog the Drill

by Aaron Kohler

Drill slippage can be very problematic, this is especially true with small home shop-type lathes. The slippage can be brought on by worn drill chucks, large drills that have had their shanks turned down, worn tapers in the tailstock quill, or “grabby” materials such as nylon or yellow brass.

A very easy fix to this is to dog the drill – simply put, attach a lathe dog to the shank of the drill and rotate the dog down until you make contact with the compound rest or a tool holder in your quick-change tool post.

A straight leg lathe dog can be easier to set up than a bent leg, but, as you can see by the pictures, a bent leg works just fine.

I hope this trick helps you out when next faced with drilling a large hole.

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