Drill Press as lathe

[lastchance]

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?

[fly-chucker]

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

[William Fitzgerald]

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

[kengore]

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...

[MrFishingToughGuy]

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

[Jim Hatch]

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

[MrFishingToughGuy]

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

[knucks]

This is the way I have my dremel set up. The hole in back of the balsa is for hooking a vaccum.[code][/code]

Knucks

[lastchance]

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

[knucks]

Lastchance

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

Knucks