- Joined
- Feb 17, 2013
- Messages
- 4,406
Here's my dilemma - I'd like to put/renew a nice point on a prick punch or center punch. The problem is that several of my punches have square bodies. So I can't just chuck them into an electric drill (3-jaw chuck!) to rotate them while holding the tip against a grinding wheel or belt sander. If anybody has an idea or knows of a small 2- or 4-jaw chuck suitable for use in an electric drill, I'd be happy to hear about it.
... and here's a crude and imperfect "field expedient" solution I've come up with. I had this old bit brace, acquired at a garage sale years ago. I'd originally intended to chuck up a countersink and use it to deburr drilled holes. Never got around to it. I recently came to realize that a bit brace is designed to hold square shanks.
So today I removed the chuck assembly from the brace, disassembled and cleaned it, and chucked up the core in my lathe. Machined off the ratchet action splines and turned it down to a diameter my drill would be happy with - just under ½". After a light greasing and reassembly, I now have what amounts to a 3-jaw to 4-jaw (OK, 2-jaw) adapter. It happily accepts square shanked punches. Runout isn't perfect, but not really too bad. Now I can regrind the points when I need to.
As I said, it's a bit crude. But it's the best I've been able to come up with so far. Suggestions welcome!
... and here's a crude and imperfect "field expedient" solution I've come up with. I had this old bit brace, acquired at a garage sale years ago. I'd originally intended to chuck up a countersink and use it to deburr drilled holes. Never got around to it. I recently came to realize that a bit brace is designed to hold square shanks.
So today I removed the chuck assembly from the brace, disassembled and cleaned it, and chucked up the core in my lathe. Machined off the ratchet action splines and turned it down to a diameter my drill would be happy with - just under ½". After a light greasing and reassembly, I now have what amounts to a 3-jaw to 4-jaw (OK, 2-jaw) adapter. It happily accepts square shanked punches. Runout isn't perfect, but not really too bad. Now I can regrind the points when I need to.
As I said, it's a bit crude. But it's the best I've been able to come up with so far. Suggestions welcome!