More newbie questions...please help.

[Justin Peters]

OK, I am getting really frustrated (again) this morning.

I went into the garage to drill out and epoxy some blanks so that they would be cured and ready to turn later on this evening. I am having problems with the drilling stuff.

First thing I tried to drill out was a piece of stabilized ambrosia maple for a perfume pen. This was using a standard HSS drill bit. The blank split when I was almost done drilling. Drill press was turning at 800 something RPM.

Then, I went and cut some bloodwood up for another slimline pen/pencil set I wanted to do. This time, I was using a 7MM Fisch vortex brad point bit. Got the first set of blanks drilled up OK, but when I went to do the third blank, the bit stopped working. Went to look at it, and the outer points on the bit had broken off. Further, I see a small crack on the blank. Not split yet, but I have a feeling it will when I go to turn it. I don't think I was using enough pressure to break the bit, but obviously I am doing something wrong. I am clearing the chips out frequently, but I have noticed that quite often, wood seems to build up in the slots on the drill bit. Sometimes I have to shut off the drill press and kind of pull the wood fibers out of the bit. I can't imagine this is normal, but I have no idea what I am doing wrong.

I feel like an idiot having to ask all of these simple questions, but I haven't seen any kind of obvious problems that I can fix. Any suggestions?

[Roger Fitzsimonds]

Hi Justin,

I keep an old tooth brush near my drill press to clean the flutes out when drilling pen blanks. I have had the best luck with the 7mm drill bit I get from WoodCraft when I first started. I hear (read) a lot of good things about the drill bits that are available at Arizona Silhouette (sp!)
If you have a lot of problems with blowout at the bottom of the blank cut the blank a little longer and don't drill through , just drill far enough for the brass tube. Then cut the end off on the saw of your choice.

Hope this helps
Roger

[Kenneth Hertzog]

Justin
some of the problems could be that the bit is getting hot. I drill my blanks at the slowest speed possible. Also I NEVER use a brad point bit. The point is pushed into the wood not drilled and this (for me anyway ) has ruined more pen blanks than the cost of the bits. I use a conventional bit, I have ground the brad point off to a conventional sharpening or I use a 9/32 PILOT POINT bit which has a smaller drill bit to start. I.ve not split a blank for a long time.
ken

[Bill Stevener]

Justin
some of the problems could be that the bit is getting hot. I drill my blanks at the slowest speed possible.
ken

Agree with the above, try slowing down some, the wood and size you have noted is not at all fond of heat.
Bill.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>:)

[Joe Horne]

Justin, here are a few things to help you out. I have only split one blank out of hundreds drilling with this method.

Use a slow speed, and make sure you back out the bit often to clear the chips. The build up of chips in the flutes of the bit is what is causing the splitting.

I only use a Parabolic Flute Drill bit for drilling Exotic blanks. (I use a parabolic on all woods.) I get my Parabolic flute bits from Berea Hardwoods.

GO SLOW with the bit feed rate..........that gives the special flute design of the parabolic bit time to evacuate the chips. I probably back the bit out to clear the hole 3 or 4 times per blank when drilling.

That should do ya. Get the proper bit, go slow, and good luck!

[Justin Peters]

OK, I will definetely slow down the bit some. The 7MM bit said on the back of the package that it was recommended for use 2000-3000 RPM. But the 8MM bit I have (same company/design) Said max 1200RPM. I set the press at 800ish hoping that would be slow enough, but it sounds like it isn't. Unfortunately, the only advice that came with the drill press was faster for wood and slower for metal. I do think the bit was getting hot...in fact, I saw a little smoke a few times, but I didn't think that it was that abnormal since the bit was already going slower than the recommended speed.

[Chris Barton]

Hi Justin,

I use all sorts of bits, brad, conventional and have had relatively few problems but, I do run my big Delta floor standing drill press at its slowest possible speed and as other have said, clear the bit repeatedly. Also, I measure the blank against the brass tube and cut it to length (just a hair over) prior to drilling my tube holes. I use a cheap machinest vise to hold the blanks and I true the vertical line of the blanks using the mounted drill bit with the lathe turned off. I then use urethane glue to put in the tubes and let them dry overnight. This has worked very well for me and when I turn pens (except for prototypes) I usually turn 20-40 at a time. That way I can be more efficient and do an asembly-line process. Good luck and keep trying.

[John Hart]

I'd also like to add that you should probably not be seeing smoke. If the drill bit is filled with wood, then you should definitely clear it before plunging again. Personally, I don't stop the drill to clear it. I just have a piece of scrap wood handy and rub a corner of it against the spinning bit and the chips clear....if they don't clear easily, then I stop it and clear it with a probe of some kind.

[Ernie Nyvall]

Hey Justin... what John said about dragging a piece of wood across the bit... that works. Also, different woods are going to react differently. Really dense and burly woods are going to get hot much faster, so back out more often. If you have the blank fixed in place, go in 1/4" and back out. It doesn't have to be at a slow pace so that it takes forever to get through the blank, just in and out often.
The drill press instructions for wood fast and metal slow is just a matter of generally speaking. Hard dense woods, go slower and soft metals, you can go faster.

I found some wood (don't know what kind it is) that I had to slow my drill press down to 500 rpms before my 1" fostner bit would even touch it. It took about ten minutes to drill a 3/4" deep hole. I'd go about 1/8" deep and it would start burning and the bit was brand new.

My penny and a half,

Ernie

[Blake McCully]

Justin,
OK, my $0.02. I must be the most fortunate penmaker on the planet. I've been making pens for slightly more than two years. I used to spend a lot of time on a penturners group that most everyone is familiar with. I have heard horror story after horror story, split/blown-out blanks, much like you describe, acrylic blanks melting while drilling, turning, sanding etc. and a bunch more I can't recall.

The only bit(s) I use that are not parabolic are 10mm (can't find a 10mm parabolic bit anywhere) and a 11/32 (R bit). Oops, forgot, the big bits for my gent's and el grande's aren't parabolic. Anyhoo. The only woods that I drill that I relieve the chips from would be (no pun intended;) ) oily woods, such as all the rosewoods, which I believe bloodwood is, stabilized burls that I get from BB and such. Most other woods, I just run the bit right through. I take my time getting it started then just run it down. No, I don't "Jam" it through, I just calmly run it all the way through. Never split, or blew out a blank. I have my DP set at the speed it was set when I put it together, no idea what the speed is. When I used a VS press, I used to slow way down to do acrylics. Found out that wasn't necessary, yes I unload the chips when drilling acrylic. Never melted one, nor had a blow out. I usually measure my blanks to maybe 1/32" longer than the tube, don't have a whole lot to square off.

I use thick CA almost exclusively and I don't use accelerator. In some extreme cases I use gorilla glue, some more punky woods seem to drill wider than more dense woods. If the tube is too loose, I use gorilla glue.

I have turned pens with guys who have used thick CA, accelerator, let them sit for five minutes and STILL the tube leaves the blank. I can honestly say that I have never had that misfortune.

I have no idea what I am doing wrong, or right:eek: but I haven't experienced any of the problems I read about. The worst problem I had was blowing the ends of the fancy stabilized wood from BB just as I was getting close to the bushing diameter. A call to Bill, a look at his video cleared that up.

I know that I haven't given you any answers to your questions, but I thought I'd jump in here and tell you my experiences.

Keep plugging away, and asking for advice. Ask John, once you get the hang of it, you're hooked.

[Justin Peters]

Hi Justin,

I use all sorts of bits, brad, conventional and have had relatively few problems but, I do run my big Delta floor standing drill press at its slowest possible speed and as other have said, clear the bit repeatedly. Also, I measure the blank against the brass tube and cut it to length (just a hair over) prior to drilling my tube holes. I use a cheap machinest vise to hold the blanks and I true the vertical line of the blanks using the mounted drill bit with the lathe turned off. I then use urethane glue to put in the tubes and let them dry overnight. This has worked very well for me and when I turn pens (except for prototypes) I usually turn 20-40 at a time. That way I can be more efficient and do an asembly-line process. Good luck and keep trying.

I pretty much do exactly as you just said...with the exception of the drill speed. my drill press goes all the way down to 200RPM...is that too slow, or will that work fine for most applications? I don't mind taking more time with it, I just don't want to ruin more blanks.

I got some epoxy, and I used that on the pens that i have done, and it seems to work OK. I'll just have to be diligent about getting them drilled out and mounted ahead of time, so that they can set up. I'm even getting brave and using the epoxy on some of the blanks that I accidentally drilled one MM oversize last week...hopefully the epoxy will hold.

I was able to get a bottle opener done today...probably because it didn't require any drilling prior to turning.

Blake...probably a combination of both your good fortune and me being way too much of a newbie.

[Kurt Aebi]

Justin,

I run my drill press between 400 & 600 for most of my drilling operations and clean out the flutes regularly. The only "blow-outs" I have experienced were when I was trying to drill out some extremely this woods (branches from a burning bush - bamboo flooring < 1/2" square) you know, stuff that would be "iffy" at best considering the size of the hole vs. the size of the blank.

Anyway, I use Gorilla Glue (polyurethane glue) exclusively to glue in my tubes and always let them sit overnight before turning them. Haven't had one come unglued yet.

Just keep on keeping on and you'll figure out what works best for you. For the first year of penturning, I almost always used some scrap wood lying around, so if I messed up, I didn't waste anyhting except maybe the tube.

I hope this helps.