Sensitive Drill Accessory - finally got TUIT

I have a long list of around TUITs and it doesn't seem to get any shorter. Some time ago I purchased a sensitive drilling attachment (and matching chuck) thinking it would be useful. Unfortunately, mine had a great deal of sideways play (even when slighly extended) due to a very poor fit between the shaft and its holder. It was put in a drawer and forgotten, only occasionally remembered whilst looking for something else.

Last week (being winter) I milled some small wagon parts on my EW using my Taig milling head and it would have very useful to drill the small holes required at the same time. As it was I had to do it afterwards using a minicraft drill - it worked but was not ideal.

Looking again at the senstive drilling accessory, the shaft was a rather odd 0.2675 thou (rather than the 1/4" I'd originally expected). I found a suitable piece of 1/2" hard brass (same diameter as the original) and drilled and reamed it 17/64ths. It was just a bit too tight. So I ran a 6.8mm drill through and in it went.

I then turned a brass arbor between centres to fit the holder over (using superglue) and turned the outside diameter true. One end I reduced to just under 10mm so that it will fit an ER16 collet chuck. Drilled and tapped a M4 thread for the grubscrew, turned the 'spring' button down to 10mm and assembled it all. No sideways movement at all now and also it fits my Taig head (shown off the lathe in its cradle).

It didn't take that long to do and (like most TUITs) you think "Why didn't I do that sooner?"

Regards,

IanT

(How do you rotate photos?)