Drilling dowel ends

| What are some techniques to precisely bore a 1/4" to 1/2" hole in | the end of a 3/4" section of a hardwood mop handle? I want the | holes to be in the exact center so I can use them as rollers. | I am new to woodworking and I'm sure there must be a trick to this. | | anyone?

The easy way is to feed the roller through the headstock of a lathe and clamp it in a 3-jaw chuck, mount a drill in a drill chuck in the tailstock, and feed the non-rotating drill bit into the rotating roller.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

Gizmofiddler wrote: > What are some techniques to precisely bore a 1/4" to 1/2" hole in the end of > a 3/4" section of a hardwood mop handle?

A lathe.

More specifically, a metal, not a wood working lathe.

Lew

1. Secure a piece of wood to the DP table
2. Drill a 3/4 hole in it
3. Replace the 3/4 bit with the 1/4 or 1/2
4. Put your mop handle section in the 3/4 hole
5. Drill

IMO, you would do better with rollers greater in diameter...1 1/2 PVC pipe works well, just cut a plywood plug to fit each end. The holes in the plywood ends can be bushed with pieces of copper pipe but it isn't necessary.

Make a drill jig: A variation on "dadiOH"'s really good idea is to fasten a thick piece of hardwood onto the drill press table. Then drill a 3/4" diameter hole about half way into the thickness of the hardwood. Without moving the table position, replace with 1/4" or 1/2" hole and drill thru. Now unfasten the hardwood piece and place it on the 3/4" dowel to use as a drill jig. Use the smaller diameter hole as a guide to drill the smaller hole into the drill jig.

I bought some and they work quite well.