Pre-drilled pen blanks

How much money do you have?

Dave Smith, Longview, WA

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Re: Pre-drilled pen blanks

Mike-in-Michigan

>You can buy them from Penn State Industries but it's just as easy to drill them on the lathe. You can buy an 8-10$ jacobs chuck for the tailstock if you have #2MT in it. Drills nice, I did that for a long time. There are also people (I think penn state too) that make jigs to use a hand drill. Anyway the link above will have the predrilled ones.. but it's expensive.

Re: Pre-drilled pen blanks

EagleS.C.

>Please excuse my ignorance,What type of chuck would you use to hold the blank to drill on hte lathe?

Idrill a lot of stock on the lathe but I use some wild homemmade configurations,

I am wondering how a chuck to drill balnks on a lathe would be less espensince than the cheapest drill press.

Even a GMC can be bought at Lowes for under $100.00.

Re: Move the drill chuck from the tailstock to the

Al Crandall --NE of Indy--

>Move the drill chuck from the tailstock to the headstock. Lay the blank on the toolrest after adjusting it for the proper height and advance the blank onto the spinning drill with the tailstock. You probably already have everything you need to do this.

Re: Move the drill chuck from the tailstock to the

Ruth in S.Cal

>I have never heard of laying the blank on the tool rest...maybe that's why drilling on the lathe never worked for me. I will give it another try using this method. Thanks Al.

Re: Pre-drilled pen blanks *LINK*

Mike-in-Michigan

>Here is a jacobs chuck that sticks in the #2 MT of the tailstock of most lathes - 9.99$. Then you can mount your penblank a number of ways. I used to chuck/clamp blanks in my Nova 4-jaw chuck.

If you don't have a 4-jaw chuck then use a face plate with a glue block and glue it on to that. It' pretty easy chisel a small indentation to the glue block to center the blank good enuff. Hit it with some CA and knock it off when your done.. it's not a low tolerance operation ya just gotta get close.

The idea of laying them on a block sitting on the ways is pretty good, never tried that one, but the 10$ chuck will do that too, just put it in the headstock. I agree a cheap drill press is a better solution but you should be able to this all for 10-15$ worth of materials.




HF Jacobs Chuck

Re: Pre-drilled pen blanks

Craig Deere

>I have an 8" drill press but the spindle stoke is not long enough to go through the 2 1/4" stock. And it looks like I need a 10-12" drill press to get that distance.

Re: Pre-drilled pen blanks

Craig Deere

>This Jacobs chuck looks like a good short term solution for $10. Thanks!!

Re: Pre-drilled pen blanks

Russ Fairfield

>Drill the wood in 2 steps. Grip the wood in a vice or something that will keep the wood secure in its orientation with the drill bit. Drill as deep as you can go with the first drilling. With the drill not running, raise the drill table so the drill is down in the hole, start the drill press, and finish the hole.

A vise for the drill press will cost you about $30, and that is a lot less than a new drill press.

Re: Pre-drilled pen blanks

Tim McGill

>If you do buy pre-drilled blanks I recommend using the half-blanks not the full length. My recent (and only) experience with the Rosewood full length blanks from Penn State was an offset hole in the center of the blank. This was caused by the manufacturer drilling in from both ends and trying to hit in the middle.

I lost 3 blanks out of the ten-pack.

Tim

3-3-05

Re: Pre-drilled pen blanks

Tom Mullane

>I use a pin jaw in my Supernova to hold the blank and then a drill chuck in the tailstock... works like a dream.. The new longnose jaw set would also work and probably better...