Which barrel trimmer pilots?

[JerryO]

I bought the CSUSA starter kit which came with a 7mm pilot and a 1/2" barrel trimmer. I ordered a couple cigar pen kits and found that they take a larger tube and I don't have the right pilot. The CS catalog doesn't seem to specify which pilot to use for each pen. Which pilots do you find to be used most often? They list 7mm, 8mm, 10mm, and "O" and "S" sizes. What are O and S's? When I mic'd the inside of the cigar tubes they seemed to be 9mm? I want to place an order tomorrow, so I'm hoping you folks can enlighten me about which ones I'll need most often in the future. Thanks.
Jerry

 

[Milpaul]

You can use a 7mm tube from a slimline kit (id will match od of your pilot) and turn a blank over the tube to match the id of your cigar tube. You might not want to get adapters for the 1/2 inch trimmer since you may be looking to upgrade to a 3/4 inch trimmer when you use larger kits.

 

[Rifleman1776]

I save disasters and just turn them to fit whatever need I have at the moment. Save them for future use. Cost is zero.

 

[dbriski]

BTW the Pilot sizes are for the drill bit that you made the hole with. ie Slimlines use 7mm drill bit, but the inside of the tube is smaller than 7mm but you use the 7mm pilot. Cigar uses a 10mm drill bit so you use the 10mm pilot (if you wanted to buy them vs make the adapter.)
I have the 7mm, and 10mm and just recently got the 27/64 for one of the Jr Kits. I have adapters for them, but I find the pilots are easier to use and I get a truer face (my adapters arn't perfect) so I will slowly buy them.

And if you got the 1/2" cutter head and not the "apprentice barrel trimmer kit" you will be able to get the 3/4" head and use the same pilot shafts.

 

[Randy_]

I, too, make my own sleeves for the 7mm pilot to fit whatever kit I am using. It is a very economical way of dealing with the problem; but to answer the question that you asked, to the best of my knowledge the cigar kit uses a 10mm tube so that is the size pilot you would need. Since you are placing an order, I would double-check with them just to be sure.

"O" and "S" are drill bit sizes for tubes that are used in some of the current pen kits. An "O" bit is 0.001" larger than 8mm and an "S" bit is a unique size that is about half way between 11/32" and 23/64".

As to which pilots you will use most often, who knows. There are hundreds of kits on the market and they use many different sized tubes. Which pilots you use most often will depend upon which kits you chose to make. That is why you have seen several responses about making your own adapters. It is easier and a lot less costly to make your own than to buy a whole stable full of pilots to cover every possibility or guess which kits you are likely to be making.

 

[its_virgil]

A disk sander or belt sander and a squaring jig. Wooden sleeve will be needed to square blanks with tubes larger than 7mm. An hour or so and some scrap wood and extra 7mm tubes and shims for the different size tubes can be made whether squaring with a pen mill or sander. It works great on all kits and you will find the instructions for making the squaring jig here: http://content.penturners.org/articles/2005/blanksquaring.pdf

do a good turn daily!
Don