Thread: Pen blank drilling choices

The one pictured is what I use and it works well

Thanks
Tony

I use a cross vice for it's versatility, but I was given a set of aluminium jaws with inset magnets ,these have vertical "vees" cut into them for vertical alignment and some horizontal grooves as well ,these stick well to the metal jaws ,and can be removed whenever required , it handles round as well as slightly rectangular blanks with ease
Cheers ~ John

Ditto.

I drill all mine on the lathe using pin jaws. That way they are always centered (reasonably) without needing to align anything. Different sized blanks can be drilled one after the other without any re-alignment required.
You can also get some of these if you want.

For high value blanks, like celtic knots or HQ burl etc, I trim the blank/s on the table saw sled to near length plus a suitable margin for waste and truing up the blank ends after the pen tube is glued in. I then mark centres with a centrefinder and spring punch. I drill a small pilot hole on both ends of the blank with the jacobs chuck in the headstock and align & drive the blank onto it using the tailstock. The pilot hole is about 2mm dia and approx 2.5 to 3mm deep, just enough for the centres to engage and align correctly.

That does a couple of things -

• the pilot holes prevent cracking of the valuable blank when placed between centres
• it establishes true centres for the blank through the whole process,
• creates a pilot start for the larger drill bits later,

Next rough down between centres to a largish diameter true cylinder which will fit your colletts.

Then the blank is mounted in the Vermec ER32 collet chuck for drilling which will perfectly centre the pen tube hole in the blank using the predrilled pilot holes. Any error in drilling is then purely a tailstock alignment issue, which can be accomodated by using trial blank/s to check alignment. Its relatively easy to work out how much free play is in the bedway - tailstock combo, and to tweak it.

Seems a bit fiddly but is well worth the effort for higher value blanks. For bulk quantities of slimlines etc a drill press jig or the Sorby type pen blank jaws is fine.

I used to use my Nova scroll chuck with pin jaws for all my blank drilling, but since buying a 2 jaw chuck from McJing it has been my go to blank drilling chuck on both the wood lathe (it screws on to the spindle via an adapter) and the metal lathe where it is held in the 3 jaw chuck.

https://mcjing.com.au/categorybrowse...categoryid=532

It centres both square (and not so square) and round blanks perfectly.

Brilliant bit of kit.

There is quite an extensive thread on this subject already in the pen forum.

I drill on the lathe with a McJing pen blank jaws. Perfect every time

Originally Posted by Treecycle

I drill all mine on the lathe using pin jaws. That way they are always centered (reasonably) without needing to align anything. Different sized blanks can be drilled one after the other without any re-alignment required.
You can also get some of these if you want.

Like the sound of that, ie not needing to align anything, always found drilling in the lathe slower than the in the drill press, i guess because you don't get the advantage of gravity.
So, many excellent turners have given their opinions here and there isn't universal agreement so i'll experiment a bit more. My lathe has a lowest speed of 500 rpm whereas the drill press can go down to 250 which is advantageous.

One thing to note if using your lathe to drill pen blanks is to make sure the headstock and tailstock are aligned perfectly. Some of the poorer quality lathes, and often pivoting head lathes, can have minor misalignments that will cause your holes to be too large. Also, if you have long drill bits (like the colt drills), it is better to start the holes with a centre drill first, to avoid the wobble factor.

Go

Originally Posted by Big Shed

I used to use my Nova scroll chuck with pin jaws for all my blank drilling, but since buying a 2 jaw chuck from McJing it has been my go to blank drilling chuck on both the wood lathe (it screws on to the spindle via an adapter) and the metal lathe where it is held in the 3 jaw chuck.

https://mcjing.com.au/categorybrowse...categoryid=532

It centres both square (and not so square) and round blanks perfectly.

Brilliant bit of kit.

There is quite an extensive thread on this subject already in the pen forum.

How does the 2 jaw go on slightly tapered blanks?

I use a cross slide vice on the drill press for my drilling. I have a wooden V block and a spring clamp to hold the blank.

SAM_1926.JPG SAM_1925.JPG

It works for me.

Michael

Originally Posted by Tiger

Go

How does the 2 jaw go on slightly tapered blanks?

it still works. Also works for round blanks

Did some experimenting today and looked at 3 methods of drilling blanks.
Method 1 drilling in lathe with pin jaws
Method 2 cross slide vise with vertical v-jaws
Method 3 simple jig pictured

results, if the blank was perfectly square, all 3 methods worked with method 1 providing the most accuracy but only if it was seated so it ran concentric. Method 3 was the next most accurate, couldn't get method 2 to be as accurate as the others but if the blank was square the result was still pretty good.
if the blank was tapered or rectangular, method 3 was the best in terms of accuracy, method 1 depended on how concentric you could get the blank, anything slighty not concentric did not produce an accurate hole even when i used the skew chisel to make a small opening for the drill. If i could get the blank to run concentrically, the result was an accurately drilled hole but that was fiddly. The drill just has to wander a little and it produces an inaccurate hole. Again worst results were with method 2 even though the v jaws were painstakingly made accurate, must be a bit of movement when the vice clamps down on the blank.

Originally Posted by Tiger

Did some experimenting today and looked at 3 methods of drilling blanks.
Method 1 drilling in lathe with pin jaws
Method 2 cross slide vise with vertical v-jaws
Method 3 simple jig pictured
.....
Again worst results were with method 2 even though the v jaws were painstakingly made accurate, must be a bit of movement when the vice clamps down on the blank.

The biggest pitfalls with most drill presses these days in the "hobby" price bracket is the flexibility of the table relative to the post/column and the runout in the drill press spindle. Powderpost & I looked at a good range of them one morning only to be very dissapointed in the quality of most. Drilling lightly, at the correct speed, and clearing the bit regularly significantly improves runnout issues.