Russian machinists.

[eKretz]

This is another Russian machinist and Im fascinated how he drills at 40 seconds in the video. He doesn't even seem to bother with a pilot hole or center drill. I cannot believe how easy he makes it. I tried this with a 32mm drill in a predrilled hole the other day and my drill started spinning in my tailstock to my horror.

First, that is a pretty large lathe. Second, he is using an extremely low feed rate. Third, if the drill is sharpened with correct geometry so that it is free cutting, this is an everyday occurrence in a machine shop. I've drilled up to 6" holes from the solid, and I'm sure others here may have done even bigger than that.

[nickel-city-fab]

Years ago I was hired to run a large radial drill, it was nothing to plunge 2" (50mm) thru 10" (800mm) in one go. All Morse taper shanks with coolant thru.

[plunger]

Years ago I was hired to run a large radial drill, it was nothing to plunge 2" (50mm) thru 10" (800mm) in one go. All Morse taper shanks with coolant thru.

That brings back memories for me as well. As an apprentice I would need to block up the die plates for 25 liter bucket molds as well as laundry basket molds.. It would involve squaring up plates on a huge milling machine and then take the block via a forklift to a huge surface grinder and then take it to a huge radial arm drill to pre drill huge holes for the columns before it would go to a jig boring machine to get the dimensions spot on.
That was a lifetime ago.

[plunger]

I think he is relying on the steel gear to lap the brass gear to get it too mesh properly. He has quite a few ideas that are almost there like his triangular drill bit. It was quite ingenious how he machined it.
I just love their lathes.
They are butt ugly but you can see they are built like a russian tank.
They just look very rigid for such a small footprint.

[nickel-city-fab]

Ya, some of the East European machinery is very well built. It reminds me of the older American machinery, same thing. The "baby" Axelson lathe could take say 60cm x 2 meters but it weighed ~8 tons!

[MattiJ]

This is another Russian machinist and Im fascinated how he drills at 40 seconds in the video. He doesn't even seem to bother with a pilot hole or center drill. I cannot believe how easy he makes it. I tried this with a 32mm drill in a predrilled hole the other day and my drill started spinning in my tailstock to my horror.

Predrilled hole makes morse taper more likely to spin. Morse taper needs enough feed pressure to hold.
if you have to predrill keep the drill size quite small.

[plunger]

This is clever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPA645QCLHE

[The Artful Bodger]

This is clever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPA645QCLHE

Yes it is clever and I hope I can remember when I need to cut a hole like that!

[plunger]

Yes it is clever and I hope I can remember when I need to cut a hole like that!

Yes,will I remember.