Shopsmith Forums

How do you drill a stright hole through a lamp

1940woodworker,
Without knowing a lot of detail about your lamp, I wood use the Mark V in horizontal boring mode and use jigs and/or blocks and clamps to hold your lamp so that the hole will be where you want it. You can get special, long bits, or use an extension with a shorter bit. With more details, a more detailed answer could be forth coming.

They sell lamp augers that you feed through a hollow dead center.

A link to the hollow center http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=1759 augers shouldn't be too hard to find.

If you don't want to invest in an auger and hollow center:

1. Split the turning stock down the center before you turn it. Mark the pieces so you can put them together the same way they came apart.
2. Rout a groove down the center of each piece with a roundnose bit.
3. Glue the two pieces back together so the grooves form a hole down the center of the stock.
4. If necessary, glue two sacrificial blocks to the top and bottom of the turning stock so you can mount it on the lathe. Otherwise, the hole down the center may interfere with the mounting.
5. Turn the stock and remove the sacrificial blocks. Provided you've matched the wood grain reasonably well, you'll never see where you split the stock initially.

With all good wishes,

If you are going to go with the drill method, don't go to fast or force the bit. Retract often to get the chips out, it will help with bit deflection / wander.

Thanks for all the ideas. I finally ended up making a two piece jig from scrap plywood and 2X4's that I could clamp to the bars. I ran a rope over the top to hold the lamp in place. Used a smaller size bit to start, then stepped up to the 1/2". It worked great.