Here I am, practically in the middle of deer country and end up relying on a woodworking forum hundreds of miles away to provide me with a donor for Whitetail Deer antlers! This place rocks! Dale Thompson, as my daughter would say, "You are the bomb!" After just a couple quick emails, I had a package in my mailbox with some carefully wrapped deer antlers, courtesy of Dale! He even included a few pre-cut to size and a couple complete with tubes glued in! He even threw in a nice "how-to" letter with tips and all! Man, it just don't get no better.
Well, I finally got caught up with a couple other "honey-do's" today, so I decided to tackle the antler. I figured, rather than use the ones already prepped, I would take it from Square 1. I'm happy to report that the mission was a success! I rough-sized a couple horns, figuring a straight line of bore within the curve and jigged it up on the DP. Managed to drill it out without a blow out and got the full length of the tube and then some! Whew...Does that stuff stink, BTW! I glued the tubes in with some Ultra-thick CA and hit it with accelerator. Squared up the ends and chucked 'em up on the pen mandrel. Trust me when I say that the attached picture simply doesn't do it justice! Wow..Is it ever neat! When I showed my daughter, she was trying to remember the name "Corian", because that's what she thought it was! It really turns out super and even worth the initial stench. Here's the result and sorry for the pic quality. And Dale, thanks again. You ARE the bomb!