Drilling chuck jaw?

[tkerrigan]

I need to drill about an .080" diameter by about .5" deep hole in the end of a chuck jaw.  Any chance a carbide bit would work or should I just have it EDM drilled?  Regards, Tom

[Nvreloader]

Tom

Are you talking about a lathe chuck jaw?

You might want to see if a file will cut the jaw, if it does,
then a good sharp carbide drill bit should drill it with no problem,
and if you don't know, a drill bit will cut a slight larger hole than it's listed size.

Tia,
Don

[mr007s]

Do you have access to soft jaws that fit your lathe?.You may get by with drilling with a 2mm(.078) bit , depends on how close to .080 .you need.
 Do you have a scrap jaw you can test on first, thats always nice to see how things may go?
 

[tkerrigan]

What I want to do is to bend a short 90° bend on the end of spring wire and insert it into the chuck jaw and use transfer punches for winding springs.  This would speed up the process tremendously.  I made a .5" x 3" mandrel with a through hole that mounts to the tool holder of the lathe and use threading setup to make springs that look just like you buy.  Turning a mandrel to mount in the chuck and drilling a hole for the wire to fit through really slows things down.  Then you have to cut the wire with the tip of a side cutter.  Regards, Tom