Shopsmith Forums

I just got the 8 in pepper mill kit from woodcraft. Now I am wondering which extention to get for the 1 1/16" forstner bit. I see penn state has the fairest price at $8.95. Woodcraft has one for 28.99 and of course I need the 1 1/16" in forstner bit. Any of you got any suggestions on the best one for this task. I am thinking Penn State because of the price and I could use theirs on other drill bits when I need to drill longer holes like axles on toy cars/trucks in horizontal mode. Thanks in advance for you input.

I used the Penn State with no problems.

kd6vpe wrote:I just got the 8 in pepper mill kit from woodcraft. Now I am wondering which extention to get for the 1 1/16" forstner bit. I see penn state has the fairest price at $8.95. Woodcraft has one for 28.99 and of course I need the 1 1/16" in forstner bit. Any of you got any suggestions on the best one for this task. I am thinking Penn State because of the price and I could use theirs on other drill bits when I need to drill longer holes like axles on toy cars/trucks in horizontal mode. Thanks in advance for you input.

I got all my mill supplies from Craft Supplies USA (The Woodturners Catalog) Also got 6" extensions from them. Actually used two extensions to drill out an 18" tall mill. In order to keep the hole centered, had to drill from both sides. Came pretty darned close! The method worked well!!!

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What about steady rests - is the assumption they aren't necessary?

The reason I ask is that I just watched a dvd on turning pepper mills (borrowed from my local AAW chapter's library). In the video it seemed pretty clear that given the size of the wood blank and the length, the instructor felt that a steady rest was a requirement...or at least a really good idea.

On the shopsmith it seems like the use of a steady rest would eliminate your ability to use the tailstock drilling method since you wouldn't want to advance the blank through the steady rest while it is tight.

One solution that I had thought of was to treat it like a horizontal boring operation (which is probably the more accurate description I suppose). Use the MT2->5/8" adapter and mount the blank backwards. Then instead of spinning the blank you mount the drill chuck on the quill and use that to advance the drill. Backward from how it is normally done, but you could still use the steady rest.

Thoughts?

damagi wrote:Use the MT2->5/8" adapter and mount the blank backwards.

So, mount the scroll chuck in the tail stock supported with the steady rest and use the drill chuck on the headstock?

terrydowning wrote:So, mount the scroll chuck in the tail stock supported with the steady rest and use the drill chuck on the headstock?

Yeah, thats what I was figuring...doesn't guarantee that the hole is centered though because the workpiece is no longer spinning.

I think of the purpose of a steady rest is to prevent rearward deflection of the workpiece when pressure is applied from the front as when cutting.

I do not understand why a steady rest would be in the way of a center boring.

Its support is only for rearward pressure. Unless it supports at least 3 positions around the workpiece, I do not see it helping boring.

P.S. on long workpieces, there is no guarantee of center drilling accuracy regardless of what is spinning(bits wander either way).