Drilling on the lathe question

[southernclay]

Hi all, I bought a Barracuda 2 chuck off craigslist a couple months ago, works great and have been happy with it. I have used the pin jaws to drill a few blanks in the last couple of weeks and no issues. However see that a set of blank drilling jaws is offered for the chuck. I'm assuming these would be a better option as far as stability? Has anyone used both?

Thanks for the help!
Warren

Link to jaws
Pen Blank Drilling Jaws for C Series Lathe Chucks at Penn State Industries

 

[edstreet]

that is a very loaded question.

One hand you have the marketing ploy if getting you to buy stuff you may not need. The other hand it really depends on what material you are using. Above both of these factors is what shape the material is in and how it is griped.

 

[southernclay]

that is a very loaded question.

One hand you have the marketing ploy if getting you to buy stuff you may not need. The other hand it really depends on what material you are using. Above both of these factors is what shape the material is in and how it is griped.

That's my concern, not that it's much layout but there's tons of things we can spend $10-$50 when $0 will do the trick. Pretty much all I'm going to be doing for now it precut wood blanks and some acrylic, round and square stock. I've drilled one of the heart pine blanks in the attached pic with no issue, they aren't perfectly shaped, a little pitting etc but not bad. What materials can you say it would be a need? Thanks for the reply BTW

 

[edstreet]

some cross cut can be brutal, as can segments, things that are not that stable to begin with.

 

[southernclay]

That makes a lot of sense, I've got a vise and drill press if I get into anything like that too. Appreciate the help as always Ed!

 

[edstreet]

Also what is not mentioned often is you can apply things to the blank to make it stronger, i.e. tape, glue, strips of wood etc.

 

[RBcarving]

I drill all my pen blanks in the barracuda w/ the standard pin jaws. Worst case Ive had is the need to drill a 1/8" pilot on some of the "moody" blanks. Other than that, use sharp drill bits and TAKE YOUR TIME !! Also, make sure you are using the proper speed for whatever material you are drilling.

Brad

 

[kovalcik]

I have used the Barracuda pin jaws and the Nova pen blank jaws (never tried the PSI pen blank jaws). Both worked fine. A few minor issues that I noticed (none were showstoppers for me):

If the blank is irregular (not square or round) the pin jaws will not center or square up the blank as well as the pen blank jaws. You may have to fiddle with it a bit.

I found that tapered blanks are more stable in the pen blank jaws.

The pin jaws are a shorter so give less support to long blanks.

No real big issues. I added the Nova pen jaws when Woodcraft had a 15% off sale. Not sure I would have gotten them otherwise, but now that I have them I like them and use them over the pin jaws everytime.

 

[shastastan]

I had a pen vise that I used with my drill press. The holes were slightly angled much of the time. I thought the vise was not level and tried some shims. That didn't work. I thought that I might have too much run out on the bit so bought a new chuck (which was much better than the one I had). This did not solve the problem either. I finally concluded that it was the pen blank vise. What a p.i.t.a.. Luckily, I just happened to spot the PSI pen blank chuck. Now I drill on the lathe with no problems.

Later, I started using the pen mill on the drill press. I made my own "vise". Just use an old wood clamp or buy a cheapo at Harbor Freight. I just cut a diamond shape, 3/4", on the inside of the wood vise jaws using the bandsaw. You can also devise one to hold very small stuff to cut on your scroll saw, too.