Drilling - I think?

[keninar]

How would one go about "drilling" a hole with the 90 degree bit, assuming the depth is less than the material thickness?

Think of a Chinese Checkers board - where specifically placed "pockets" created by the 90 degrees bit would hold marbles.
(Not my current project, but I remember drilling many, many of these by hand growing up).

I'm probably overlooking an obvious approach, but haven't stumbled onto the ability to drill with other than the 1/16,1/8, or 3/16

Thanks

keninar

[DickB]

You could lie, but I'd be careful. If you use the drill tool to drill a 1/8" hole with the 1/8" bit, the machine will simply plunge the bit down. Load the V bit instead of the 1/8" bit when running the project. The feed rate may be too fast however.

I think a better way is to draw a zero-length line. Select the line tool and click the mouse without moving it. Assign the V bit. One member does this to make cribbage boards and gets better results than with the drill tool.

[blhutchens]

This would be where you would trick the machine.
set it up to drill with one of the other bits and when the machine asks for that bit put the 90* bit in.
I would say drill an 1/8 inch hole with the 1/8 inch bit to your desired depth
I have not tried this so it may take some experimentation.

[bergerud]

What about the 1/2" ballnose. Assign it to a very small circle. I think you would get a nice smooth indent for a marble.

[myshop1044]

I have used this before, You use the drill function let's drill a .5 dia hole .125 deep, then place a .5 circle dia. over the center of the drill area and apply the 90 deg bit to the circle at any depth you want. this will give you a tapered hole with a flat bottom. see attached. You just have to play with the dia's to fit you marble.

[lynnfrwd]

What about the 1/2" ballnose. Assign it to a very small circle. I think you would get a nice smooth indent for a marble.

I found it easiest to draw a circle and then change the size smaller, so that it is little more than a dot.

[SteveNelson46]

Make your circles then size and place them where you want them to be. Then make them a vector group. In the example I used 1/2" circles.

[bjbethke]

How would one go about "drilling" a hole with the 90 degree bit, assuming the depth is less than the material thickness?

Think of a Chinese Checkers board - where specifically placed "pockets" created by the 90 degrees bit would hold marbles.
(Not my current project, but I remember drilling many, many of these by hand growing up).

I'm probably overlooking an obvious approach, but haven't stumbled onto the ability to drill with other than the 1/16,1/8, or 3/16

Thanks

keninar

If I was doing that!!!; Carving marble holes for game boards, I would use a Font and the CenterLine program. I made a font to do that. It's quick and carves in a vector format.

You need to load the Font on your computer to see the Black Dots.

For the Marble Holes, I would use a round nose bit.

[keninar]

Great input – Thanks!

DickB – Haven’t had much luck lying (at least to SWMBO)

Bergerud – ½ “ ballnose would be great for marbles – but that’s not this project. (Later, perhaps, but not this one).

Current project is creation of the business end of a live center for a conventional lathe – the 90 degree pocket designed to hold the tip end of a pool cue shaft. With the shaft driven from the joint end, the 90 degree hole will sufficiently center the variety of tip diameters to allow for shaft cleaning. (Another hobby that competes for time in the woodshop!) No machining in this arrangement, but merely need to rotate the shaft fairly slowly to remove surface crud and polish. Given the various tip diameters, thought it best to utilize the somewhat self-centering aspect of a 90 degree hole.

Myshop1044 – Thanks for the tapered hole option – presently looking for a tapered hole with a pointed bottom (centering benefit from the above comment.)

Lynnfrwd – Thanks – makes sense, if the feed rate doesn’t get me in trouble.

Bjbethke – Thanks! Guess I’m gonna have to do the Chinese Checkers thing after all!!

Thanks to all for the response. Will let ya’ll know how this turns out!!

CW Forums – What a Resource!

keninar

[SteveNelson46]

It would seem to me that if you already have a lathe to just use it to make the hole.

BTW, vector groups are just that. They carve in vector format. But, They do require version 3. This example in 1.187 is just a pocket cut with the 45 degree v-bit assigned to the outer circle. It's made larger for emphasis.

You could also cut it with a stone axe but, it might take you a little longer (lol).