Thread: Drilling/Reaming/Facing Pen Blanks/Drill Press

Originally Posted by Penpal

I use a dedicated Drill Press, OK it is a cheap one but it drills to depth without relocation. First thing I replaced the bearings immediately and fitted a decent 1 hp motor. I purchased for about 55 dollars an XY axis controlled vice.Then a pair of jaws fitted with a horizontal vee through the jaws and three double vees in the vertical posn,

Why the two position vees, well one is to hold the blank vertical and the other to hold the blank horizontal after glueing in the brass, after sanding the ends of the blank with a disk sander held by hand on the platform.
on a 14 inch sander outboard on an old lathe that has a true platform on it.With the blank in the horizontal I use a step drill to final clean the brass barrell and the face of the blank. I generally drill non stop a number of blanks at a time judging the centre by eye, even the 1/2 inch Corian Blanks.Glue a number at a time etc.

I bother because I can and prefer to eliminate as many of the what ifs before they occur.

Have fun Peter.

Hi Peter

I see you have another piece of Conkerberry in the vice! Nice choice of timber, beautiful to turn and finish.

How many of blanks do you glue at a time? I find I can only do about 50 half blanks at a time, before the fumes of the CA glue give me head spin.

Regards

David

Where did you buy the "V" jaws. Quite impressive.

Generally up to 120 halves, have done up to 200 because I would rather never use CA to glue blanks am currently using a glue called Multihesive ( Glues most anything to anything in the 250ml size) supersedes PVA and dries clear. It is in a squeeze pack and I cut a hole in a cardboard box and store it upside down and it does not dry out the resdue between uses.
The Aussie site as it is made in Sydney in Revesby is www.prepproducts.com.au I was introduced to it at the Sydney Working With Wood Show this year.

I have used that same sized pack in the Canadian product Weldbond (Excellent) as well as Vise a polyyurethane same size squeezepack that sticks like tar to the proverbial blanket.

Used to use two part epoxy but even the longer time stuff goes off to quickly for me I found, it never lets go.

Have used Gorilla Glue similar to Vise in application as it is a poly,only ever lost one blank that slid out with poly about 3/8 of an inch the brass that is.

On a few occassions have bought masses of spare brasses so I can have a real lot of pens lined up drilled, glued and trimmed, I seem to go off some blanks occasionally and leave the imported Palm etc to another day.

The plank of Euc Burl you sent is curving a bit in the roof space but all getting dry as we speak, I would never dry supersensitive Musk Burl from Tasmania this way it would only be useful as a Pretzel in fact the Mallees are checking a little and will watch them too. Regards Peter

With my lightning one finger typing your question arrived as I was replying to David,
A few years ago I lucked onto a pair that a guy in Sydney had bought as a remainder from Carbatec who got either stuck with them so he said and he sold them at various fairs etc.

Still no problem to make your own using a V bit and Router in Aluminium ( Easy working or hardwood, the size can be deeper than mine (see pics) run the horizontal first the only need one vertical for all your pen blanks. The beauty of this method is for people like me who cut by eye on the bandsaw so as to get the best cuts from Burl etc it grips the blank really well if it is an ugly shape. If ever you use Conkerberry you will know what I mean. Drill the two holes where the supplied jaws bolt on a Roberts your uncle.

I have thought it would be piece of cake for a computer guided milling machine in any machine.

Have good fortune Peter. Just home from a guided tour of our local hospital counting the lights from the Ambulance and Hospital corridors so I am seeing things very clearly now.

I have some neophrean that will do the trick also but I was being a bit lazy you know the saying why reinvent the wheel. Thank You.

Originally Posted by Pasho

I have some neophrean that will do the trick also but I was being a bit lazy you know the saying why reinvent the wheel. Thank You.

hehe! lazy finds a better way ! you don't need a mill or router to modify your jaws, just cut your neoprene to size to screw into your existing vice ,remove the original jaws and replace by screwing through the existing screw holes, when done tighten the jaws with nothing in the vice .mark the centre of the jaws both ways set your drill on that position and drill through with a 1/2 or 5/8 drill ,right through, this gives you a true hole square to your drill setup, also gives you 4 gripping sides of the jaws .when you open the vice, may find you need to take the new jaws out to relieve the bottom of the drilled hole so when gripping a workpiece their will be a relief to clear the corners of odd shaped blanks.Hmm not so clear that hehe,take the jaw you just drilled put it in a vice proud of the half ho;e and put a saw cut by hand the bottom of the drilled hole along the lengtj of it so you get a relief for a corner to go into if needed. Hard to explain exactly but hope you get the idea,

Peter, use the same XY vise as yours with a pair of home made V jaws, use replaceable plywood inserts under the blank to stop the drill hitting the vise screw and to stop breakout of the blank.

The Vs were cut on the tablesaw, 1 straight cut and 2 at 45deg.

Also use the disk sander for final trimming