Drill Press as lathe

If you turned a drill press to a horizontal position could it be used as a lathe for dremel bugs? Any thoughts on the subject?

I should have made my question more clear.

I have a press to hold my variable speed dremel. If I turn it horizontally could I use the dremel itself as a lathe? Does that sound clearer? Maybe I have the terminology wrong?

I don't see why you couldn't. Only two things that might be issues: RPM's would a drill press be fast enough (it would still work, only more slowly), would the chuck be able to hold onto the needle or whatever you are using to hold the foam?
Give it a shot.

Kevin

Your Dremel with drill press mounting will work as long as you fasten it down and you have a chuck size to fit the needle. Jim Hatch had a post on 17 febuary 2005 "Foam/ Dremel Revised" telling to purchase "Yarn Darner" needles. He showed how to mount the needle in a dremel 1/16 chuck that you can get in a dremel assortment pack for $6.97. Find this post and his two article in "Prevoius Flies" ""Creative Foam Fly Tying" and "The Jelly Bean" BILL

No need to turn the press to a horizontal position, I use mine all the time for turning wood, cork and even light metal such as aluminum. All you need to do is rig some kind of thrust bearing and a tool rest (no tool rest required for sand paper turning, cork and foam)

My rig uses a double thickness of 3/4 plywood approx. 8" X 8", I use an old roller blade wheel in the center as a bearing and a 1/2" dia. smooth shaft carriage bolt as the tool rest. I position the ply wood so the vertical bolt is about 1/2" from the piece of work and then center the roller blade wheel under the chuck. For most work I can use a 1/4" dia. thru bolt and nuts to creat a make-shift spindle, I use double nuts and washers to lock the piece on the shaft, mount the shaft into the chuck jaws and let the round bolt head spin on the bearing.

For really light work like a foam plug all you need to do is mount a very large sewing machine needle in the chuck, impale the foam block and shape with sand paper. I use a small pin vise in the chuck jaws if I want to get closer to the foam than the large drill press chuck will allow.

Update: just noticed you are talking about a dremel drill press, my comments are for a full size drill press...

Definitely. I did something similar when I first tried my hand at making cork grips (found an easier way to do that eventually), but it can be done and should work very well if you take your time. And yes, there's really no need to turn it to horizontal. If it doesn't feel comfortable, experiment!!! But of course be careful. Good luck.

Marty

Hey Last Chance,

I'm not familiar with how you have your dremel mounted but just let me say,
it is all important that the dremel or dremel flex shaft be firmly mounted and
permit no movement other than the spinning of the armature. The flies are
fairly small and any play in any of the set up will lessen your control over the
shaping of the fly. This article shows how I set mine up using a dremel flex
shaft. It made a very simple set up possible. Warm regards, Jim
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytyin ... 3fotw.html

Jim, that is one sweet set-up. I am going to try to adapt the design for making a cork grip if that's kosher with you.

Marty

This is the way I have my dremel set up. The hole in back of the balsa is for hooking a vaccum.[chttp://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t..._nymph/003.jpgode][/code]

Knucks

Knucks: What a great idea. I see you made a wood vise to hold the dremel tool. I'm kind of slow on the pipe part and how you have that assembled. Can you post a picture of it?
thanks

Lastchance

Are you talking about the vaccum. If so I will try to get a picture of it.

Knucks

Knucks: This is the part I didn't understand:

Now carefuly lock the pipe in your bench vice horizontaly below the jaws in the pipe jaws.

Lastchance
That was in Grrfish1's post.

Knucks

Sorry, Knucks.

Lastchance, what is it you dont understand? All Im recommending, is to seperate the base plate from the rest of the drill press and clamp the pipe in a bench vise, 'If' you have a bench vise. With the dremal installed in the drill press clamp it will now just be turned horzontial. Thus you will have the effect of a lath. Personaly I just hook the dremal thru a foot control. Hold the dremal in my left hand and use an emery board in my right hand for shapeing. Been doing it that way for nearly twenty years. I know Jim Hatch perfers to mount his chuck head due to the smaller bodies he turns among other reasons I would guess and its a neat idea. But not to my way of thinking all that nessery for the size bugs I turn. Mostly size #10 and above. I also like Knucks setup, with the vaccum port, that sure would cut down on the clean up of foam dust. But from turning cork and foam grips for rods on rod laths for so many years Im sort of used to it. If I can be of any further help to ya my e mail is qrrfish1@aol.com stands for Quality Reel Repair, fishing #1 interest. 8)

Hey Folks,

For the newer folks that might not know, Qrrfsh1, or Captain Paul
as most of us know him, is the one that introduced me to using a
dremel to shape foam flies. He's a very talented saltwater fisherman
and guide who is extremely knowledgeable and creative in foam.*G*
Warm regards, Jim

I show this for a couple of reasons...

To just show another idea...you can also use a larger pipe clamp and use a regular drill.

Also to ask if anyone knows if these are available? I've had it so long I can't remember where I got it...probably some obscure reloading company.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...lHolder002.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...lHolder003.jpg

If anyone's interested I just posted a small drill press in the "For Sale" forum.

Knucks, I like the Dremel mount.

My father-in-law got me a Dremel about 5 years ago for Christmas and so far it still sits in the box, I have not used it. This looks like a great idea. What do you use for the shaft? Mine came with a bunch of accessories but not a shaft really, although I could make one with a couple small washers on each end of one of the pieces that holds a "cutoff" wheel. I am assuming that you use sandpaper or emery board to shape the balsa but do you "cup" the face prior to shaping or during the shaping?

I have been using the preformed popper bodies but these look like they are nicely shaped bodies.

Thanks in advance for the info, I am new into the popper scene but they are definitely fun to make.

Dwight