question about air hole below mortice

[Ratimus]

Ok I think I'm going to try to combine the best of all of these ideas.
I took a slice off the shank which brought the air hole closer to the mortise. Now I plan to reface the shank and then re-drill the mortice with a larger bit (3/8" per Sas). This plan is:

a. excellent
b. a shit show waiting to happen
c. theoretically a good idea but you'll screw it up anyway

I'd say somewhere between a and c. You don't have to screw it up. I would freehand drill the mortise with a 3/8" bit. Make sure you use a stop collar or have some other method of preventing the bit from grabbing and drilling in farther than you want it to go.

Then you can use a pin gauge or turn down a piece of dowel or whatever to use as a jam chuck that fits in the newly drilled mortise. Use this to face the shank and Bob's yer uncle.

[calsbeek]

Hey Ryan
why is that preferable to putting the stummel in a drill-press vice, facing the shank with a forster bit and then drilling the new mortice while still in the vice? That would ensure that its all in line eh?

and do I want Bob to be my uncle or do I NOT want Bob to be my uncle? thats a new one for me.

[Ratimus]

IF you can hold the stummel securely and IF you can get everything lined up, it could work. I'd be worried about drilling crooked or off-center but I guess that's your best bet if you don't have a lathe. Make sure your drill and Forstner bits are sharp because you don't want to have to apply much pressure or you'll risk pushing the whole setup out of the perfect alignment you worked so hard to get. Before I got a lathe I once tried something similar on a drill press and Bob certainly wasn't my uncle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob's_your_uncle

[calsbeek]

so on a lathe you would chuck the dowel and then put the dowel into the mortice, spin the whole stummel by the shank and face it with the cutting tool facing to the right?

[Ratimus]

so on a lathe you would chuck the dowel and then put the dowel into the mortice, spin the whole stummel by the shank and face it with the cutting tool facing to the right?

Exactly.