Understanding Pen Drilling
There was a time when I said I would never turn another pen. I have since gone back on that. I enjoy being able to make a pen as a last minute, semi-casual gift, and I also enjoy having pens made of woods which I appreciate at my own disposal. So I want to be able to get it right...
Part of what made me hang it up before was the fact that I have a tremendous amount of trouble drilling the blank correctly and subsequently installing the tube. The hole is always too small and if I try to carefully ream it I end up making the hole wider in parts and something always goes wrong. I actually went through three $8 pen kits today just trying to get a blank mounted.
I have a set of Colt bradpoints and I also have a 7mm pen blank bit which is also made by Colt. I find that when I am drilling blanks at 7mm with the dedicated pen bit, which I do on my lathe, I am not really having any problems. The tubes slide right in and glue securely. But as soon as I try to make an 8mm pen, it all goes south. I'm using the 8mm bradpoint bit that is part of my set.
So is there something fundamental that I'm missing here? Is the reason that the 7mm pen-specific bit is marketed that way because it is ever so slightly oversized to accommodate the outer diameter of the brass tubes? That would explain why the 8mm size gives me so many problems. If this is the case, I will just buy an 8mm pen bit. I want to have that option because there is a kit I like which is an 8mm bore.
Otherwise, what am I doing wrong? This is such a basic step in the pen making process and it's giving me ridiculous amounts of trouble and actually costing me quite a bit of money.
For people who know the pen item numbers at carbatec, I am having success with Pen 1 and Pencil 1, which are 7mm bore kits, but am failing miserably with Pen 9, which is an 8mm kit.
Thanks a lot in advance,
Luke
