drilling pen blanks

[ROCKY D PATTON]

looking for some help or some input try to drill pen blanks but my drill press is a table model the travel doesnt allow it to drill all at once can move table up and down it is a pain to that try drill by hand and that didnt work out very good can it be drill on the lathe? 1220 vs is what i got dont have room or money for a new driill press right now

[Bill O'Conner]

Rocky

I drilled the last set of pen blanks on my 1220vs worked, will need a scroll chuck to hold them

Bill

[Larry Marley]

Hi Rocky,
you can drill them with the lathe. a small set of jaws on your chuck will hold them while you drill with a Jacobs chuck in the tail stock.

if you don't have a chuck, you can mount a block on to a face plate with a square mortise to hold the blank.

Larry

[Stephen Massman]

When i only had a table top drill press i would do the following.

Drill all you can with limited quill travel. Then stop drill press and raise blank so bit goes in the hole and then slide a piece of plywood under my blank clamp. The drill some more. Just make sure you go slow and clear the chips.

It worked until I got a used drill press with 3.5 inches of travel.

Hope that helps.

[Gordon Thompson]

or, what i do, as my drill press doesn't have enough travel to drill a blank either, is to drill as much as I can, shut off the drill, raise the blank up onto the bit, then put a block of wood underneath, the finish the hole.

just make sure when finishing the hole, that you use a fresh area of the scrap block for support underneath the blank to prevent the blank from chipping on the end.

[ROCKY D PATTON]

thanks for the input is it better to buy a blank holder to drill them and to hold them straight what do every used out there dont how many pens i plan to make

[Rob Young]

My little benchtop drill press only has about 2-1/2" quill travel so I drill as far as possible, then stop, slide the blank up the bit and put some plywood underneath. Since I'm using epoxy or Gorilla glue to hold the tubes I don't worry much about the little bit of enlargement that is inevitable with this technique. Just go slow and clear the chips.

As for a blank holder, I made mine from an 8" handscrew. Seems to work quite well and definately cheaper than buying one. It can be a bit fussy to work with and make sure the blank is square to the bit. Cut two V notches in the jaws so you can hold slightly irregular shapes.

[ROCKY D PATTON]

rob i did what you said but i got a 6" hand wood screw and used my moriser with a 1/4" bit and made a v grove in the wood i will try it later got to to work and pay for all this fun