Drilling Wall Street II's

[xmaddchillx]

I have a 10" Drill Press with the pen vise from woodcraft. I can seem to drill all the way through the 3" or so blank. What other options do I have? I tried flipping it over and drilling the other side. Glued the tube and the blank blew apart on the lathe since the hole wasn't 100% straight ( there was a gap between the blank and the tube in part of it.

I need to make 2 of these before tuesday so I'm very anxious to get this figured out!!

 

[nightowl]

If you have a drill chuck for your lathe you can do it that way. Also if your drill press has a table that can be raised and lowered you can leave the blank in the bit and raise the table(with the drill turned off). I have done it that way and it has worked fine. I have also placed a shim of wood under the bland to raise it up. Hope this helps.

 

[alphageek]

The easy answer is to stop the DP, put a flat board underneath the pen vise and carefully turn your DP back on.

This takes a little practice as your bit starts in the blank, but its a heck a lot easier than moving the table.

 

[Sabaharr]

I had that same problem but my solution may not be viable for some people. I got so fed up with it that I went to Home Depot and got a giant Ridgid drill press with a 4.5 inch stroke. I had griped so much that my wife dragged me kicking and screaming over there. Too bad they don't hand out Oscars for performances like that. Some times you have to take drastic measures to get permission to buy tools.

 

[aggromere]

before i started drilling on the lathe i had the same problem. I used to make a bunch of sketch pencils that were longer than the 3inch travel of the drill press. I just segmented the blanks and drilled them separately and then glued them onto the same tube. To cover the seem i would cut a groove and fill it with something. Actually ended up making some pretty pens that way.

 

[jimm1]

Drill down until the drill stops. Turn off the drill, lossen your centering vise. Raise your blank into the drill bit. Tighten up the vise and continue drilling. At time, I'll use chanel locks for additional support.

 

[xmaddchillx]

ah ok . thats what i thought just neede the expert opinions lol

 

[stolicky]

Drill down until the drill stops. Turn off the drill, lossen your centering vise. Raise your blank into the drill bit. Tighten up the vise and continue drilling. At time, I'll use chanel locks for additional support.

I do the same thing, without the channel locks.

 

[TomS]

Make sure your bit is in the chuck all the way up, then make your first pass, and bottom it out. Then move the bit down the chuck about 1 inch, get the end of the bit in the original hole, turn on your drill, and finish hole.

 

[bruce119]

Make sure your bit is in the chuck all the way up, then make your first pass, and bottom it out. Then move the bit down the chuck about 1 inch, get the end of the bit in the original hole, turn on your drill, and finish hole.

That's what I do when I have to drill a long hole. Move the drill you don't lose any positioning much more precise.


Bruce

 

[alphageek]

Wow... several solutions! All similar, yet slighly different. (Also all pretty putzy and thus the reason my drill press is lonely since I drill on the lathe too).

 

[JimB]

Drill down until the drill stops. Turn off the drill, lossen your centering vise. Raise your blank into the drill bit. Tighten up the vise and continue drilling. At time, I'll use chanel locks for additional support.

I do this as well but have never used channel locks. I've never had a problem.

 

[GaryMadore]

I used to just pick up the vice (and blank) in my hands and move it up into the still-spinning bit (after I bottomed it out, so the 2" deep hole acted as a guide).

It worked fine, but I always held my breath....

I finally got tired of having to workaround and bought a drill press with 4" quill travel.

Cheers!

Gary

 

[rwyoung]

The easy answer is to stop the DP, put a flat board underneath the pen vise and carefully turn your DP back on.

This takes a little practice as your bit starts in the blank, but its a heck a lot easier than moving the table.

+1 on this method

I don't have a fancy pen vice, just use a modified 8" wooden handscrew. Drill down as far as I can, then stop the drill press. Slide the blank up and put one or two 3/4" pieces of plywood below.

When moving the blank up the shaft you are going to loose the ability to extract the chips fully. And you need to be careful that you have things aligned properly and secured before restarting the drill press.

A safer way would be to use a chuck to hold the blank in your lathe headstock and a drill chuck to hold the bit in the tail stock. But the above works if you are careful and patient.

 

[rwyoung]

Make sure your bit is in the chuck all the way up, then make your first pass, and bottom it out. Then move the bit down the chuck about 1 inch, get the end of the bit in the original hole, turn on your drill, and finish hole.

Just be sure you have enough of the shank left in the chuck, at least 1/2".

 

[xmaddchillx]

i tried it by stopping the drill press and moving up the blank in the vise then redrilling using channel locks as well. seemed to have worked well

 

[pensbymdsmith]

I did the same thing as Sabaharr and went to Home Depot and bought the 15" Ridgid drill press. I love it.

 

[GoodTurns]

Drill down until the drill stops. Turn off the drill, lossen your centering vise. Raise your blank into the drill bit. Tighten up the vise and continue drilling. At time, I'll use chanel locks for additional support.

tried it this way....channel locks get some real good speed and distance if you aren't paying real close attention!

 

[xmaddchillx]

lmao the key is it hold the channel locks!!

 

[GouletPens]

Drill as far as you can, stop the DP, loosen the drill bit, and lower it down an inch or so (assuming there is still a good hold on the bit in the chuck) and resume drilling. I have a Rikon DP with a 3 1/4" travel, so I rarely run into this, but it works great b/c the blank and vise stay put. You have to have good long bits though.

 

[wolftat]

tried it this way....channel locks get some real good speed and distance if you aren't paying real close attention!

And what have you learned from this?