Drill pen blanks

[Craig Matheny]

I looked on the forums but did not find anything I am sure it is there but... The question is what is the best and cost effective way to drill pen blanks tried last weekend but all crocked and to close to edge so I quit and came for advise.

Thanks

[James Combs]

I looked on the forums but did not find anything I am sure it is there but... The question is what is the best and cost effective way to drill pen blanks tried last weekend but all crocked and to close to edge so I quit and came for advise.

Thanks

All you should need is a drill press, proper size drill bit and a jig or fixture to hold the blank vertical. The jig can be as simple as a few inches of 2x4 with a rabbet cut in the end. Hold the blank in the rabbet corner and position and drill. That's it. It is all I used when I started. I have now replaced the 2x4 with a drill press vice that does the same thing.

[Chris Burgess]

There are several differnt tricks to drilling your blanks. I tried some then just bit the bullet and bought a pen blank vice. My advise if you do buy one spend a few extra and get the one w/ the largest capacity. Mine can barely fit 1" blanks in it.

[Grant Wilkinson]

If you have a jacobs chuck for your lathe, drill them on the lathe. The lathe is generally more accurate than a drill press and vice, I find.

[Doug W Swanson]

Here is what I use: I bought a drill press vise at Harbor Freight and then cut a couple of grooves in two boards. I tried using just the vise but it was hard to make sure the pen blank stayed vertical. This helps keep everything in line with the drill bit.

Also, I try to make sure the drill is centered on the blank but sometimes it gets off center. It's not usually a big deal as long as it's not going to affect the final pen.

[Brian Brown]

If you are drilling on the lathe with a Jacobs chuck, you'll get the greatest accuracy if the blanks are square and straight to begin with. The lathe is just a bit slower for doing a lot of blanks at one time. If you are drilling on a drill press, be certain that your drill press table is perpendicular to the drill bit. That was my problem with going off center, and getting too close to the edge.

[John Merc]

I second Grant. Jacobs chuck and drill them right on the lathe. On my bench top drill press, I could not drill thru some of the longer pens without drilling half then raising the table to finish.

[Craig Matheny]

Thanks all I will go to the clamp idea first then down the road look at the Jacobs bit as I have found adapters for the shopsmith so I am not wasting money if I get a lathe latter.

[Peter Elliott]

Here is what I use.. goto any big box for one.

207708


You can cut the slot in it like the vise if you want.

I mark the center of the blank, clamp it straight and drill on drillpress.
Good for grabbing odd size, big/small blanks of all kinds.

I used to clamp this wood clamp to the table but now comfortable to just free hand until I find the center mark to bit.

My wood clamp has 2" sides. So it's not one of the small versions.

[Steve Kubien]

Funny, but I actually blogged about this on Sept 13th. You can few it via my homepage.

[Thomas Canfield]

Using the proper speed also helps to get a clean cut with less force on the bit at a slower speed or burning at too high a speed.

[Tim O'Hearn]

Steve,
Did you make a jig for the drilling on the lathe or do you hold them in a chuck?

[Jim Burr]

Drill press vise or the one Doug pictured...make sure whatever you use is 90 degrees to the bit. When you get into acrylics and smaller blanks, straight up and down is critical!! Drilling acrylic is a whole different and scary animal!!

[phil harold]

I have not drilled an acrylic blank yet
would it be best to use a dull drill bit, like I do when drilling thinner plastic?

[Billy Tallant]

I started off buying a table top drill press & vice. Then I upgraded to a Jet Floor model drill press. I bought the pen state industries pen blank chuck when they released it. Now I only drill on the lathe. This method is best method for myself. I do not have to take the time to mark the center & try to get the drill lined up anymore. Just slap my blank in the chuck & slide the tailstock up & start drilling.

207737

[Paul Heely]

When I was making pens I used a vise and my drill press. I mounted the vice on a board, so that I could pivot the vice out from under the bit. This way I could put the blank in and take it out without the bit interfering and always have it aligned under the drill bit. I usually made pens in batches of 10 - 30 at time and found this helped to speed up my drilling. I'll find the press and take a picture when I get home tonight, a picture will probably make more sense than my description.

Paul

[Scott Lux]

So apparently most of you are using pen blanks that are square. How about us yahoos who cut our own from whatever scraps are lying around? Not that I've ever made a pen blank that was 5/8" X 1" tapering to 3/4" x 1 1/8". No I would never do that. ;)

I make them oversize and use a drill press vise. But when I need precision, I round them between centers and drill them on the lathe.

[Paul Heely]

Most of my blanks were square enough. On those that were not, I would mount them between centers and rough turn them round, then drill.

Paul

[Tim Rinehart]

+1 for drilling on lathe. Too much fumbling and chance for error on drill press from my experience. I suppose a properly lined up jig or such would eliminate/reduce drill press errors, but there are just too many other reasons to justify having a jacobs chuck for the lathe that it seems natural.
And, if not obvious, regardless of lathe or drill press, the drills need to be sharp and 'equally' ground. I sharpen my own drills on a grinder, (don't have a dedicated drill sharpener), and the slightest difference in profile or height of one cutting edge to other can cause drift error, even when drilled in lathe.
I do like the "pen maker bit" vs standard drill bits for good starts and breakthrough.
Oh...one other thing...I take a scrap piece of nylon sized to fit down inside my chuck (but bigger than thru hole to spindle) that I hold the pen blank with, and it works as a stop for the blank as well as a backer to prevent too much tearout on end of cut when drill comes thru.

[Ronald Fox]

One thing to check when drilling on the drill press is that the table is square to the bit. The first thing you should do is put in a long drill bit or a steel rod in the chuck and check both axis with a square. Many people complain about the jigs or fixture being off, not realizing that the problem lies with the drill press table.

Hope this helps,
Ron

[Steve Kubien]

Tim, I have no special jig for drilling at the lathe. I have a set of #1 step jaws by Oneway and I hold the blank in those, Jacobs chuck in the tailstock.

To address to other points brought up in this thread... I do not know what serious burning happens while drilling a pen blank. Yes, I occasinally get a little smoke but that is just another indicator that it is time to retract the bit, clear the flutes and carry on. It does not affect gluing the tubes in any way. I have had zero glue failures when using either polyurethane glue or epoxy.

Scott, the beaiputiful thing about holding pen blanks in #1 jaws is that it doesn't matter if your blank is square, tapered or whatever. If the end I am drilling into isn't square to the bit, I make it square with the toe of a skew chisel first. About 75% of the pens I do these days are from found wood so they are not square and perfect like what you buy. HTH

[Donny Lawson]

I cut up odd sizes all the time. It's nice to have it square but if you have an odd piece and want it to turn out good just use a drill press and mark the smaller end in the center. Then look at where you want the bit to exit and draw you a line from top to bottom. Put your piece in the press vise so the line is lined up. Use a Brad point bit and drill slowly. After the hole is drilled glue in the tube,square the ends, and turn. It doesn't have to be 3/4 on both ends. Some of mine might be 5/8 on one end and 1 1/4 on the other but that's alright. The lathe will take care of that.

[Keith Westfall]

I made these for my lathe and it works well.


207796

[Bernie Weishapl]

I agree with Donnie and drill on my drill press. I cut my own blanks and they are not square by any stretch. I use a drill press vise to hold the blank, get it as square as my eye will get it and drill. If they don't come out the bottom exactly on center well the lathe will still make it round.

[Roger Chandler]

Ditto, what Bernie just said..........I use a pen blank vise and a drill press........a lot faster.......some of my blanks are a little rectangle, but it does not matter...........the turning makes them round.

[James Combs]

I agree with Donnie and drill on my drill press. I cut my own blanks and they are not square by any stretch. I use a drill press vise to hold the blank, get it as square as my eye will get it and drill. If they don't come out the bottom exactly on center well the lathe will still make it round.

What Bernie said. As someone above previously said I do a batch of pens at a time most of the time. If I used the lathe it would take much longer to do plus I have some really odd shaped blanks too.

[Mike Campbell KS]

I started off buying a table top drill press & vice. Then I upgraded to a Jet Floor model drill press. I bought the pen state industries pen blank chuck when they released it. Now I only drill on the lathe. This method is best method for myself. I do not have to take the time to mark the center & try to get the drill lined up anymore. Just slap my blank in the chuck & slide the tailstock up & start drilling.

207737

I got this chuck and would not hesitate to buy it again. I have always drilled on the lathe, and have found that using this chuck was much easier and truer than using my drill press. An added benefit, I didn't have to clean all of the tools off of my drill press bed ;)

[Peter Hay in Aus]

207801Hi Craig,

Choose a drill unit that will give a full 3 inches of movement. Only buy one that allows a locking threaded rod to be used in the stem of the chuck to lock the chuck in place in the quill. Spend an hour or two setting up the drill table vertical and parrallel. Buy and use an X Y axis vice (not expensive) take up slack in the ways and adjustments. Fit metal jaws with a horizontal Vee and Vertical Vee. Remember most electric motors are designed only to be switched on off so many times per minute and or hour.
What I do is never vary the fast speed, leave the drill switched on and drill up to two hundred at a time. Uneven blanks a breeze,never have blow out or splits use a drill point drill. My drill press is 18 yrs old now works fine. Have success I do. Noticed you weld all of this is apiece of cake. Kind regards Peter.

[Paul Heely]

I took some pictures of the setup I used when I was still turning pens. One thing I forgot to mention is that I always cut my blanks in half first, then drilled, then cut each piece to length.

Here's the blank vise mounted on a board. It's bolted on one corner and I installed a stop for when it is pivoted.
207807

I set up my drill press table so that it is 90 to the drill bit, and re-check it on occasion. To setup the drill vise, I put a bit in the drill, crank it down and lock the quill. Then it's a simple matter to lock the pen vise on the bit and clamp the board to the table.
207808

Now the vise can be swung out to install and remove the blank.
207809

And, swung back in, against the stop, to drill the hole. I would set the drills stop so that I stopped just short of coming out of the bottom of the blank.
207810

Hopefully someone will find this useful.

Paul

[Craig Matheny]

So do you all drill the complete pen blank or cut first then drill? Also is there a max length for pens? Right now I have blanks all different lengths so if I cut all the blanks to a set size so i can get any pen out of what would that max lenght be?

[Betty Fox]

Five inches will cover most pens you will work with. When we order them from dreamwood design they come 3/4 inches thick and five inches long. We've never had any problem matching them to pen kits.
HTH
Betty

[James Combs]

So do you all drill the complete pen blank or cut first then drill? Also is there a max length for pens? Right now I have blanks all different lengths so if I cut all the blanks to a set size so i can get any pen out of what would that max lenght be?

Craig, I always cut mine to length + 1/8" first then drill. I tend to cut plastic blanks a little longer do to the possibility of the bottom blowing out. This I will drill to a depth past the length of the tube then cut the blank on the band saw down to the + 1/8" length exposing the drilled hole. This is a good method on some woods too that may tend to fracture too much when the drill bit exits the bottom. BTW my set-up is very similar to Peter Hay in Aus, I also use an X-Y vice and v-notched jaw inserts for it.

[Craig Matheny]

I also notice the band saw is the tool of choice for cutting any reason not to use a chop saw?

[James Combs]

I also notice the band saw is the tool of choice for cutting any reason not to use a chop saw?

Yes it will do a fine job but I don't know about the rest of the folks but cutting a pen blank with a chop type saw or miter saw puts my fingers uncomfortably close to a very dangerous blade. Another downside is the width of the saw kerf. I occasionally have a blank that is already on the shy side for length and I don't want to loose anymore of it then is necessary. Using a band saw makes it easier to push that small blank across the blade with a piece of scrap.

[Stan Smith]

This is really an excellent thread! Anyone new to pen turning or even those with some experience will benefit from it.
I have been using a pen vice for years, but the results were not the best. The holes would be straight going int but too much off center coming out the bottom. I tried using the level each time but still had a problem. Next I used shims and that helped some. I noticed that the bit wobbled some so I decided to see if I could improve my DP some. I bought a new Jacobs ball bearing chuck and some power twist v belts. I still had a problem. I stumbled across this thread and immediately bought the Penn State dedicated drill chuck. I already have a #2MT drill press chuck. Problem solved except that I cannot advance the drill chuck with the tailstock handle because the travel is too short since I'm using a jet mini lathe. I just push the tailstock on the bed. I drill at the slowest speed which is where I start to bring to round anyway. I wish I would have read this thread years ago though. Luckily, I only ruined a few blanks. I don't cut my blanks to length on the chop saw. The band say is safer if you've got your fence setup right. I also have one of those rockwell inverted scroll saw tables, but is vibrates some. You can use a scroll saw with a #9 - #12 blade for length or width cutting. If you are worried about your fingers, you can use a wood clamp from HF. I used to use one for pen drilling on the DP also. I cut v's in mine but you don't have to. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread.

Stan

[John Aspinall]

Surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet - clear your chips often. A drill is much more likely to wander off course with flutes packed full of debris that can't escape.

[Stan Smith]

I decided to try using just my wood clamp on the DP and the hole was off just by a small amount. It was off by a lot using the pen drilling vice. Guess I found the main culprit after all, but I'll continue to use the lathe from now own. Not sure what to do with the pen drilling vice now either.


This is really an excellent thread! Anyone new to pen turning or even those with some experience will benefit from it.
I have been using a pen vice for years, but the results were not the best. The holes would be straight going int but too much off center coming out the bottom. I tried using the level each time but still had a problem. Next I used shims and that helped some. I noticed that the bit wobbled some so I decided to see if I could improve my DP some. I bought a new Jacobs ball bearing chuck and some power twist v belts. I still had a problem. I stumbled across this thread and immediately bought the Penn State dedicated drill chuck. I already have a #2MT drill press chuck. Problem solved except that I cannot advance the drill chuck with the tailstock handle because the travel is too short since I'm using a jet mini lathe. I just push the tailstock on the bed. I drill at the slowest speed which is where I start to bring to round anyway. I wish I would have read this thread years ago though. Luckily, I only ruined a few blanks. I don't cut my blanks to length on the chop saw. The band say is safer if you've got your fence setup right. I also have one of those rockwell inverted scroll saw tables, but is vibrates some. You can use a scroll saw with a #9 - #12 blade for length or width cutting. If you are worried about your fingers, you can use a wood clamp from HF. I used to use one for pen drilling on the DP also. I cut v's in mine but you don't have to. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread.

Stan

[Ron Radliff]

My drill press is a bench top model with a short quill travel distance, so I have some issues making that work. When I've tried using the lathe, I seem to get quite a bit of wobble in my drill bit. Not sure what's going on there.

[Peter Fabricius]

Hi Craig,There is lots of good advice here, it sounds like you are using a Shopsmith as your lathe?There may be some restrictions for drilling on a Shopsmith, I do not know it very well.BUT, you can start by NOT spending your cash on pen blank drill jigs that you will not use in the future.....Start by making the drill press holder from some off cuts you already have in the shop. Anything that will hold the blank vertical on the drill press table, squared as noted by all advice above.When you can, you will by a chuck and at that time buy a set of SPIGOT JAWS. This will allow you to accurately and easily drill your pen blanks ON THE LATHE...The 4 jaw chuck and the Jacobs drill chuck are essential items and will always be used as long as you want to do Woodturning. Just my thoughts and trying to save you lots of money.If we could survey members on how many UNUSED pen blank drill jigs are now gathering dust, I bet there would be many! I believe drill jigs, squaring tools (cannot remember the proper name for these) and pen presses are a total waste of your money.Also consider the Oneway Live Centre and you can make free mandrel savers and get great "real round" pens and without bending your mandrels.Lots of info to consider, but it is worth every minute spent on planning ahead.Peter F.

[Stan Smith]

Planning ahead is good. Wasting $$ on, as you point out, little used equip. is not. I had been using a wood clamp, but I thought a dedicated tool would be better....Wrong! I did buy a pen drilling chuck which works like a champ but I could have used some spigot jaws--if I can find them :). I wish I had known about making a mandrl saver from the Oneway since I've got one on the way from Penn State. I do have some different live centers though.

[Jim Burr]

The best, most precise way is with your lathe and a chuck. Some index/starter bits and there ya go! A drill press and blank vice should be your last choice.

[Dick Mahany]

Okay I'm late to the party here, but I found that using spigot or tower type extended jaws on my Stronghold chuck gives me the ability to precisely drill blanks even when they are tapered in length and out of square. It is my only method as it works so well. I managed to salvage some Amboyna burl cut offs that were less than 0.5 " thick and yield great pen blanks on a Streamline / Roadster type pen. Just my .02$

[Stan Smith]

I discovered very quickly that you pay a price for both getting old and not spending enough time in the shop. I just drilled a blank using my new pen drilling chuck. Worked great! As I mentioned I have a mandrel saving center coming from Penn State. I was thinking that I need to make some more spacers for a mini pen and then remembered that the last pen mandrel I got has a way to shorten it. Oh well, it will still be better than using my live center. Now that I have some of these extras, I wish I had known about them years ago. Pens are what I probably turn the most of. They make nice gifts for friends and family who appreciate them.