Replies

1. 
   UncleDunc | Mar 13, 2003 01:43pm | #1

   The easiest way to locate the holes accurately is to locate and drill the holes first and then use the holes to mount the piece on the lathe. Voila, automatic accurate centering.

   If you don't need a hole all the way through the column, this is pretty easy. Just drill a hole in the center of each connecting face (see above about doing the holes before the turning), install a threaded insert just below flush, and make the connection with a headless threaded stud.

   If you do need the hole to go all the way through, it gets a little uglier The easiest way is probably to cut the stock in half along the axis and cut a channel in each half with a round nose router bit.

   Otherwise, if that doesn't appeal to you, click on the Advanced Search button near the top of the left hand frame, select "Using the boolean expression" in the search type popup menu, enter the following string in the seach text box, and access the accumulated wisdom of the Knotheads. :)

   drill AND (deep OR long) AND hole

   You didn't ask for design advice, but I'll offer some anyway. If you want perfectly smooth invisible joints between the three sections, you're asking for trouble. It would be much, much easier to buy a lathe that will turn the column in one piece than to get a seamless match between three pieces. For one thing, even if you could center the connecting holes with perfect accuracy, wood swells and shrinks with humidity changes, and the probability of all three sections swelling and shrinking exactly the same way is vanishingly small.

   If you're willing to feature the joints instead of trying to hide them, perhaps by turning a bead on the connecting edges, the required accuracy drops way down.