Tricky Work Holding Problem

Hi All,

Just picked up this nice DRYAD book Press bought at a local auction, good price because of the damage to the handle.

Handles are sometimes REALLY hard to remove but this one will come off OK.

I would like some suggestions as to the best way to hold this awkward shaped piece in order to square the ends and drill centrally along the axis to allow the fixing of whatever new handle knobs I decide on.

These may be modified brass door knobs or bought in round or egg shaped hardwood items.

Cheers, Martin

Didn’t you do one of these a year or so ago Martin?

have you a a lathe with a big enough bore to slide the handle down?

otherwise grind (with your belt sander )them square and carefully marking out and drill for a piece of threaded studding to fix new knobs

If they won't fit your lathe easily, can you use a pillar-drill or bench-drill by clamping the handle vertically in large Vee-blocks, angle-plates or whatever so the handle goes down past the side of the table, so you can then drill and tap the end?

Could you find a piece of tube /pipe to just fit over the handle,then fill it with a hot melt glue ? This can then be gripped in a 3-jaw and melted off later in boiling water.repeat for opposite end.Just an idea.

Like Bootlegger, I was thinking in terms of putting the remains of the handle into a tube and filling it with a low melting point alloy, such as Woods metal, so that it can be held more easily to be faced, drilled and tapped..

The fun bit may be popping the exact centre for alignment in a 4 jaw chuck! maybe leaving a little protrudin from the tube and clock that?

Howard

I'd make use of that big hole in the middle to bolt it to an angle plate or vertical slide

+1 for JB's idea, less messing and adequate.

Emgee

Hi All,

I will try Jason.s method for squaring up the handle ends. Have got a nice beefy angle plate.

I only have a very small pillar drill with no room for something this size.

Even if I can get the handle in the 4 jaw on my Myford I cannot hold the outboard end safely? Certainly no room in the spindle.

Cheers, Martin

Take the tailstock off your Myford, and clamp down on the cross-slide using a bolt through the hole in the middle with packing to centre height.

If you're going to drill the handles for a knob on the end, why not centre-drill the outboard ends for tailstock support? Then you can turn the handles however you might wish.

Hi Martin, I don't know how long your handle is, but maybe you could use JasonB's idea of using the big hole in the middle and set it up on your cross slide and using your tool post bolt to hold it down, as in my mock-up below to drill holes for threaded rod, and you could use your tailstock to push it, even as an assistant to push it with the leadscrew.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 11/12/2021 11:14:20

Nicholas,

I like the look of that idea! Will try that after I have squared up the ends using Jason's suggestion, many thanks.

Cheers, Martin

Why not square up the ends in the same setup?

Nicholas,

I think that the set up on the mill will be more rigid for the squaring up?

Martin

This might be a job for a cat head.

I'd be interested to have visual confirmation that this press was made by a company called Dryad. All the book presses I've ever seen marked Dryad have been wooden or part wooden.

The press you have there isn't a book press strictly speaking, as I've said before.

It's what's correctly referred to as a copy (or copying) press.

A better discussion than in the last link can be found here.

Edited By Bill Phinn on 11/12/2021 16:33:57

If it's clamped through the centre hole, what difference would the machine it's clamped to make?

It's hardly a big part, and all that's needed is to clean up the surfaces so a couple of small cuts would do the job.

You could make several passes with a small cutter on the mill, if it is on an angle plate in the lathe the up or down load from a larger dia cutter sweeping the whole face may move the part. One reason I suggested a vert slide as that could be used on the lathe to take a few passes by raising and lowering the work.

The other advantage of the lathe is you can use the chuck jaws and tailstock barrel to eyeball the part to the axis

I'd just file the ends flat and square(ish) then drill and tap by hand as per Ian Parkin above. If you want to do it by machine and you have a fixed steady, centre drill each end by hand, mount twixt centres and skim a length each end so you can run steady on it, then using 3 jaw and steady you can drill/tap axially.

Fixed steady is one of those things you hardly ever use, but when you want it it's a godsend. If you want real frustration you could make up one of those spider things, bit of tube with 2 rows of radial tapped holes, you adjust the screws to get the thing running true, then use the fixed steady on the outside. Saves having to skim the real job, but a real PITA to use.

Bill Phinn,

Actually a nipping press, certainly by Dryad of Leicester as evidenced by the great big Lion and stylised letter D

cast into the underside!

we have had exactly 12 of these presses over the years from our stock book records, they come in 3 quality grades a-c.

Cheers, Martin