Our preference is to use the right tool for the job, but sometimes that just isn’t possible. If you don’t have a lathe and need to turn a few small pieces of wood, you can: invest in a small lathe jig for your drill press, opt for a small lathe bed for a handheld drill, or attach smaller workpieces directly to a drill or drill press.
One has to improvise with the tools available to them. Check out this poor man’s lathe, by Flickr member Funadium. While far from elegant, this is a simple solution, and as long as one is careful and takes proper precautions, it can be safe.
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Photo by Funadium, used with permission.
Jerry
That guy has amost as much ‘miscellaneous’ on his workbench, as I do!
fred
I can remember a time (50-60 years ago) – when the DIY movement was taking off. Back then the portable (corded of course) electric drill was promoted as the universal tool. The Sears catalog and other sources had attachments to mount your drill in a jig that turned it into a grinder, there were drill press fixtures to mount a portable drill, adapters to fit a jig-saw end onto your chuck. another to make it into circular saw. The only one that I recll having any utility for me – was a thing called a Portalign – a jig with 2 rods, a base and a sliding mount for the drill.
http://lumberjocks.com/topics/27157
Fred
My dad had one of those Portaligns. As far as the drill-press jigs, I really wanted one of those for a long time for the space-saving aspect and the cool factor.And it was nice not having to find a place for a real drill press. I’m still looking at getting a dremel stand/press eventually for small things, but a machinist friend told me the reason they don’t still sell those corded drill ones is they simply aren’t as precise as even a low end drill press. So I got myself a low end benchtop drill press that had pretty good reviews, and I have spent the last year trying to find it a permanent home.
Blair
As far as the drill press attachments go, I have one in the shop that I bought in my young, (and moneyless) days, and still use it on occasion. You are correct in that it is nowhere near precise, but sometimes for rougher repetitive holes where a portable rig is sufficient it will do. I don’t use a drill press enough to merit a purchase, well so far anyway.
Blair
I still have one of the old horizontal holders that turned a drill into a grinding wheel, (of sorts), somewhere stowed away, haven’t given that any thought until your post….lol. The funny thing is that most drills for home use then sported 1/4″ chucks, and were relatively high speed as I recall, not exactly optimum for grinding tasks.