"Drill Press- Poor Man's Lathe" Topic

If you bought a simple X-Y vise and an end mill, could you use a drill press to carve simple shapes out of balsa? I was wondering how well it would work to create basic vehicle structures with nice, sharp edges that I could laminate plasticard details on top of.

Balsa is very soft, which requires very sharp tools to get a reasonably smooth finish. For vehicles, you are generally better off to build up, i.e. build and detail a series of shaped boxes from plastic card, rather than try to build or carve, down from a larger block. Harder materials yield harder edges but are harder to cut. I have used a slow speed hand drill as a small lathe to finish sand round parts. I have also used a table mounted router to cut profiled strip.
Also…I still have a wonky finger tip from where I cut myself on a hobby project many years ago. Be very careful. Better off to use the tools as they were designed, using all the available guards and protective devices. Regards, Rob.

With balsa, you are better off cutting small pieces and gluing them to larger. It would be a nightmare to try to machine.

I should have called it a mill, rather than a lathe, but thanks for the advice, it's much appreciated.

Jeff

Grizzly makes an accessory for a drill press which theoretically lets you use it as a lathe: link

I tried making my own but it really didn't work that well.

You might be able to mill styrene or some other soft material, but generally drill presses don't do well with the kind of lateral loading milling produces. You could try and fashion something like this: link

You could do it with basswood, or other hard woods.

Balsa is too soft, I suspect.

I've seen brass cannons milled using this method, on-line, so it can be done. They looked superb.

I would love to send out a handful of shaker pegs to carve out as Egyptian flower lotus columns with a lathe!

At the very least, ONE to serve as a master for casting in resin later. All I would need for them is for the lathe to flatten the top and then to cut the 3 or 4 neck grooves and the base groove.

TMP link

link

If only I knew someone I could send them to . . .

Dan

Dan, a lathe would need to puncture both ends to work properly. My dad and I share a shopsmith so we have a lathe but not the expertise to use it….

:(

Dan

I added a cheap x-y table to a bench top drill press and milled out a connecting rod for an rc engine. It worked biggest issues is the spindle wants to go back up so I could only use one axis at a time. Cutting soft wood, you would not really dull them I would think for a long time.

Wondering if a Dremel drill press would be better than av regular drill press for what you want to do. The only issue would be if the x-y table is too big for that press.

Shaker pegs as Egyptian columns! Clever idea!

Joe,

It's something I had been trying to figure out for the longest time:

TMP link

TMP link

Dan

Hey Dan-

I glanced through those other threads and a thought came to me. What if you had 3d print made, negative to the bas relief you want on the columns? You could then wrap a cylinder with a thin coat of putty and roll it along the negative to make your columns.

Jeff

Dan-

30mm is pretty small for a real lathe. You might try putting a short piece of dowel in a dremel or drill etc.
Use sandpaper (wear a dust mask!) and various tools to shape it the way you want. With the low forces involved you shouldn't need a tool rest or anything.

I've made cribbage pegs this way: