Drilling short blanks

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Kragax

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Jan 17, 2015
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western new york
Hi, Me again. I have another beginners question. I have been watching videos around drilling blanks and of course a lot of the holes are of center a bit. I wondered if cutting the blanks in half as the kit required if drilling the shorter blank would result in a more centered hole? It would minimize the wobble of a longer drill and not have as many chips to clear to prevent a blow out.
 

randyrls

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Feb 2, 2006
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Harrisburg, PA 17112
I wondered if cutting the blanks in half as the kit required if drilling the shorter blank would result in a more centered hole? It would minimize the wobble of a longer drill and not have as many chips to clear to prevent a blow out.

Craig; If you have a pen kit with two tubes, then yes, You should cut the full size blank into rough halves. The brass tubes may not be the same size as many kits have a larger top brass tube and a slightly smaller nib tube. Be careful not to mix them up!

Take a look here in the wiki on blank preparation.

Finally; It doesn't matter if the drill hole isn't perfectly aligned with the axis of the blank. You still need to use a pen mill or sanding jig to make sure the brass tube and the end of the blank form a 90 degree angle. Place the fitting in the drilled hole. If the blank extends beyond the fitting on all sides, you are good to go!
 

monophoto

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Mar 13, 2010
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Saratoga Springs, NY
Mike

Randy is correct - if the pen is constructed in two sections, then it makes a lot of sense to cut the blank in half BEFORE drilling the hole. There's no sense in making the job any more difficult than it needs to be.

But one additional piece of advice - before cutting the blank, put some marks on the side of the blank so that you can tell later which are the ends of the blank that were cut. Then, if you have a dominant grain pattern, it will be much easier to match grain across the middle of the finished pen.

But also, when you drill, always drill from that cut end. The drill will be reasonably close to centered at the end where the bit enters the wood, but may wander off axis as it goes deeper. Drilling from the cut end (which will eventually be the center of the assembled pen) will assure that the hole in the blanks are centered at the point where the grain pattern will be matched, and improve the quality of the grain match.
 

TimS124

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Apr 11, 2012
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735
Location
Asheville, NC
I drill one long hole (with a long bit) and glue in a single 10" replacement tube for most of the kits I make. My drill press has almost 5" of quill travel which is perfect for not-quite drilling out the other end.

Back when I'd cut the blank into shorter pieces, I usually drilled all the way through each half. That lead to more blowouts when the bit exits the bottom of each half. A common suggestion for avoiding that was to "drill short" (i.e.: don't drill all the way out the far end).

Long bits, excellent quill travel, and single piece long tubes makes that easy to do. Each 10" piece of brass tube will easily do two normal length blanks.

After the glue sets, I trim a hair off the end of the blank that has the tube sticking out and I mill that flat. Then I mark it for length plus a hair and cut...mill both sides of the cut flat then mark for the second segment, cut and mill its end.

This gives me more control over how much gap I want in the patter where it cross the center band (for pen styles where that matters).

I've attached an image showing a batch of blanks drilled and glued this way. The second blank from the right has only a little stub sticking out so that one's tube is likely the leftover from a prior batch.
 

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