My Build - I blame you lot for this....!

[HiltonSteve]

Right, drawing attached of proposed hole layout for bed.

Machine should be able to drill most of the holes but won't be able to tap them.

Just the 380 holes to tap by hand then......:confused:

[John S]

I've got an air tapper, 20p per hole, hows that sound ?
.

[HiltonSteve]

I've got an air tapper, 20p per hole, hows that sound ?
.

Sounds bloody brilliant.

Just re-designed it and it now only has 4 holes in, when can I come and 'borrow it' and drop the 80p off?

[John S]

Sounds bloody brilliant.

Just re-designed it and it now only has 4 holes in, when can I come and 'borrow it' and drop the 80p off?

In words of one syllable - get stuffed

[HiltonSteve]

Been drilling the 360 holes in the bed plate tonight, centre drilled them first then drilled them blind down to 19mm depth with a 6.8 drill ready for tapping.

Had to shuffle the plate along the bed so the machine could get to some of the holes, still need to shuffle it back to get to the remaining 60 that are left but should have it done for the end of the week.

Took a while so I did a video while I was waiting for it to finish, bit like watching paint dry but i thought i would share it with you...

[John S]

Don't bother centre drilling, centre drills are a throw back to when you used dead centres in a lathe and the pip is to hold white lead as a lubricant.

Unless you actually need a centre hole for a lathe, use spotting drills then the size drill or even better is to buy a few good quality stub drills and just use these to start and finish the holes, saves hours of time and being short and stubby they are hard to break

[HiltonSteve]

Only used centre drill to pre-chamfer the holes before drilling and tapping, just happen to have one next to the machine that was the right size.

Seemed like a good idea at the time!