Drilling in the lathe

[mmayo]

These are the entrance and exit holes in five Sierra acrylic blanks. I used both Colt and Fisch drill bits, drill chuck on tailstock and a set of Nova pen jaws in my Nova G3 chuck plus 500 rpm's and careful chip removal. To many of you who are proficient I am preaching to the choir, for those less successful-try it thus way and leave your drill press to gather dust for a while.

Exit holes on several Roadsters/ Saturns

PS - the Fisch but will not be replaced again when dull, but the Colts will be.

 

[KenV]

Did you know that Fisch owns the Colt brand for drill bits......

 

[jttheclockman]

If you need accuracy such as drilling a segmented blank then for sure the lathe is the way to go. Your photos are proof of nice clean and true holes.

 

[mmayo]

The two drill bits brands may be owned by the same company, but the shape, resistance to flex and general drilling characteristics are far from the same.

 

[Bob in SF]

Nice - thanks!

 

[JodyS]

Great pictures! Are you drilling all the way to the exit hole? As opposed to cutting the blank long then cutting off the tip on a bandsaw?

 

[mmayo]

I drill through without the added step of cutting the oversized blank. That technique is in my quiver, but only needs to be used when this method does not work. The biggest issues to me are lathe speed (drill slowly around 500 rpm), sharp quality drill bits, and very slow advancement near and through the exiit.

iPhone photos using led light from the lathe

 

[avramw]

That's super clean! Is 500 a pretty good number for wood as well or acrylics?

 

[WriteON]

Good thread. I swear by lathe drilling.

 

[mmayo]

My slowest speed

That's super clean! Is 500 a pretty good number for wood as well or acrylics?

My Rikon midi has about 500 rpm as the slowest speed and it just works. Be sure to clear the chips right before the bit can exit. Any time I am lazy and try to just quickly blow through, well it blows out. Patience grasshopper

 

[mmayo]

I tried that...

Great pictures! Are you drilling all the way to the exit hole? As opposed to cutting the blank long then cutting off the tip on a bandsaw?

I am better at just drilling through compared to the added step of cutting after a partial drilling. If I made $500 pens I might, But I don't. I make $25-$150 pens and my exit holes are mostly perfect. Maybe it is luck and maybe slow advance and good bits.

 

[PenPal]

Question are all your blanks square, do you cut timber to follow the grain, do you cut timber burls,do you cut other tough timbers irregular shapes then undust your drill press.
Irregular shaped blanks are easy in a vee shaped vice on the drill press. I use a dedicated two jaw chuck on my VL150 with ease on occasions, but drilling 100 blanks find it easier, faster on the drill press.Running at a medium speed I have never changed the speed over thousands of blanks. I use made in the USA Drill point drills,cheap as for all types of blanks.



Peter.

 

[mmayo]

I just cut 30 pens worth of Saturn/Roadster etc. blanks today. They were cut on the table saw using a very sharp Freud fusion blade and are square. They were then cut into two pieces on the table saw using a small sled with a firm stopblock. I use a pens plus pair of jaws on my Nova G3 chuck and drilled all of them on the lathe at 530 rpm. I changed bits every blank (1/2) of the pen rotating four drill bits to keep them cool. I now have 30 pens worth of evenly drilled blanks ready for reverse painting. I could never expect these results from "my" current drill press.

Wood with diagonal grain like dymondwood and odd burls require slower efforts and I lose some of those battles try as I might.