>After drilling a few hundred pen blanks, I am finally thinking about what/why I am doing things. :-) I use a combination of regular and parabolic flute drills, all at the slowest speed my drill press will produce...about 500rpm. Some woods drill like butter, some get hot enough to smoke, some drill straight through without backing out to clear chips and some have to be drilled by plunging, backing out, plunging.... I don't blow out too many, (just enough to be annoying) but I have to go fairly slow on some woods.
My drill press has four combinations of pulleys for four speeds, accessed by raising the top "lid" to expose the pulleys. It is located under some duct work that allows no room to raise the lid, so it is a pain to change speeds (the reason I leave it set at 500 rpm).
If you had just one speed to choose to drill end grain for pen blanks, what would that be?
>The 900 - 1000 rpm range. The chips clear faster and I get done quicker. If I'm getting too much heat, smoke or bit wandering, I sharpen the bits, plunge/pull more often or don't force the bit into the wood so much.
Going too slow is sometimes as bad as going too fast. 500 rpm isn't too bad. If it's working for you then continue. Otherwise, just give it a try and see what happens. Nothing like experiencing it yourself.
>1100rpm is my standard speed using B&D Bullet Point Bits. I get no problems with wander ... but I do get some heat issues. I use 2-3 plunge/clear cycles on every blank (more sometimes on some stabilized blanks). Over the years I've worked my speed up from what I used to do. I find less bit wander at higher speeds than at lower speeds -- say 650-750. I also spritz with water when I have heat problems or on non-wood blanks like corian or acrylic.
>Barry Gross has written several articles on turning Corian for various magazines and his suggestion is to put a drop of water in the hole while drilling solid surface materials. I started doing that with all my pen blanks (both wood and man-made) and, while I can't say for sure it helps, I haven't had nearly as many blow-outs as before.
The advice of making several plunges and withdrawals to clear the chips is important too, especially in dense, oily exotics.
>I was drilling at 500 rpm's and was having lots of trouble blowing out blanks. Had a couple of other issues going on at the same time that caused me to look at getting a drill press that I could drill with at a slower speed.
Long story short, I now drill between 150 and 200 rpm's and have not had a pen blank blowout. Fostner bits work much better at this slower speen as well. I get no heat build up and find that my drilling speed is no slower. The inside of the hole is smooth and straight every time.
IMOP, give slower a try and see if you don't like it better.