need help with a drill press

[Bill O'Conner]

I'm looking for a bench top drill press for drilling pen blank? I'm thinking I need some thing that will have atleast a 2.5 inch drill stroke but am have trouble finding anything more than 2 inch of travel.:confused: :confused: would rather not have to get a free standing model because of lack of floor space in my shop/garage

Thanks
Bill

[Don Baer]

Bill,
Get on of these for your tailstock.

http://images.rockler.com/rockler/images/90317.jpg

It'll get er done. $25 at Rockler

[Bill O'Conner]

I have one of those but don't have a four jaw chuck for the head stock

[Curt Fuller]

Bill, I drill them on the lathe. I hold the blank with the inner edge of my talon chuck jaws and put a Jacobs chuck in the tail stock. If you use a brad point bit they drill pretty clean and straight. I can never get them as straight with a drill press. My tailstock has a 4" travel but be careful backing out the bit so that you don't pull the jacobs chuck out of the tailstock.

A good jacobs chuck for you lathe is only about 40-50 bucks as compared to a couple hundred for a drill press.

[Don Baer]

I have one of those but don't have a four jaw chuck for the head stock

Sounds like you need to get a scroll chuck too...:D

[Bill O'Conner]

for a little hobby just to relax after driving my dumptruck all day is getting quite expensive:rolleyes:

[Don Baer]

well for the cost of a good drill press, you can buy the Talon chuck, adapter and the drill chuck and you'll be in business plus you be set up to turn bowls as a bonus..;)

[Bill O'Conner]

an opion on what would be a good chuck? or am I opening a whole new can of worms on this topic:)

[Don Baer]

I have the oneway that requires the Tommey bars. Some complain that it hard to use but I have no problems. I just use the indexer on my headstock to lock the spindle. For a few $$ more you can get the oneway Talon. Which uses a "T" Wrentch to tighten the jaws. Both work very well in my honest opinion.

[Scott Donley]

for a little hobby just to relax after driving my dumptruck all day is getting quite expensive:rolleyes: You were warned!
You can allways drill part way then slide some scrap under it to finish.

[Bill O'Conner]

Yes I was warned but that never stoped me before and I'm sure it won't help in the future :D :D

[Frank Fusco]

Using the lathe works, but it is slow. Maybe a ten to one difference from the drill press. If you do buy a drill press, I strongly reccomend a floor model. Think about it, the footprint of both is the same. A floor model is far more versitile than a bench top. When I bought my Grizzly G7943 I made the mistake of getting a bench model. Really regret it. Otherwise an excellent tool. For pen blanks I use a machinists cross-slide vice bought at Grizzly for about $45.00. Very handy for other uses as well.

[Corey Hallagan]

I use a Craftsman 12 inch Bench top. Mainly cause my floor model died and I needed the space. I am not in love with it but I do drill all my pens on it. Note, You don't need to spend 40.-50.00 for a drill chuck for the tail stock. I bought a 9.99 Harbor Freight that I have been drilling boxes with on the lathe and it is worth every penny of that. Several other creekers tipped me off to that one. Note if you do get a drill chuck and a scroll chuck, consider the jaws. I have 2 chucks one a Nova and one a Grizzly cheapy. Neither will hold a pen blank without buy additional jaws. The smallest piece both can hold is like 1 5/8 diameter or 1 1/2 square. Just FYI. If your tight for space a Benchtop drill press works ok. I have a very small shop and it did give me a little more room but it doesn't have more than 2 inches of travel and it does drill fairly tight with everything locked down.

Corey

[Corey Hallagan]

Scott that is what I have to do with my C-man benchtop. Normally for pen blanks I just need another 1/4 usually for full length pen barrels.

Corey

[Lloyd Frisbee]

I had a cheap HF drill that had too small of a stroke for pens. I tried drilling them on my lathe but it was a POS HF and ended up with oval holes. I bought a Delta DP350 drill press because it has over 3 inch stroke and variable speed. Now I have a better lathe and can drill them either way. I find the feed rate of the tail stock drilling is too slow unless you can really slow down the lathe. There are pro's and con's for either method. Do what works best for you.

Lloyd