Pen Blank Drilling on Lathe vs Drill Press

[PenMan1]

Two points I want to make about drilling on the lathe vs drill press.

1. With a drill press I can drill a single resin blank section in less than one minute, wood blanks are a little faster. That includes everything from bit touching blank on one section until bit touches blank on the next section; loading, unloading, putting down one and picking up another. I leave the drill running when I change blanks. With the lathe I need 4 1/2 minutes to do the same thing. I think I could save a minute or more with the PSI dedicated chuck. I use the drill press because it is much faster.

2. Why does the hole need to be in the center of the blank anyway? I know in some segmented blanks it is needed, but with most blanks I drill wherever the coloring or grain looks most interesting, not in the center. I can't drill off center with the lathe, actually it can be done and I do it with antler, but that is a still slower technique.

Man! It is obvious that the two of us are on the same page!!!!!

I DO drill the midline and upper end pens on the lathe. IT IS more accurate, period. BUT, as you point out it is SLOW as Hell!

I take every time savings shortcut that I can and still maintain as much accuracy as possible. On lathe drilling, I KEEP 6 Jacobs chucks loaded with my most common bits. THIS TAKES 1 MINUTE PER PEN out of the my drill time! Doing what we do, THAT's HUGE!

Someone here, once stated that "turning between centers" takes 17 seconds longer! My wife nearly PEE'd herself laughing! (Here, Razors go on a "special" drill rod mandrel, 3 at the time!) 17 SECONDS, NOW THAT's FUNNY!

The concept of taking a 10" 7mm tube and gluing three "razor" blanks at the time would be lost, here, too.

I suspect people using scroll chucks ARE NOT making the volume of pens that the two of us are are making (I "kinda know" your numbers), since we "talked" last, my production numbers this year are about 200 pens "north" of where yours were last year.

On the 7mm units I produce, (razors, stylus pens) and single barrel pens that I make, I DRILL ON THE DRILL PRESS. Granted, I have a decent press "tweaked" pretty nicely with a Huffman press, BUT on the small stuff, you are EXACTLY RIGHT! unless it's segmented, checkerboard, etc, WHAT DOES IT MATTER if the hole is down the middle? "There is plenty of meat"! AND YES, "I keep the motor running", too

Snickering.....Because you cheat:biggrin: ( Wife goes one way, you go another), To try to make and SELL 3,000 pens per year, THAT MEANS after you subtract AT LEAST 2 days out of each week to actually GO SELL THE PENS, you MUST AVERAGE MAKING 12 PENS PER DAY (15, If you want a week of vacation).

I think ours is a different world for many here.

Respectfully submitted.

 

[Ulises Victoria]

it sounds like there is something out of alingment on your lathe

When I advance my live tailstock center against my mandrel, they are perfectly centered...

2. Why does the hole need to be in the center of the blank anyway? I know in some segmented blanks it is needed, but with most blanks I drill wherever the coloring or grain looks most interesting, not in the center. I can't drill off center with the lathe, actually it can be done and I do it with antler, but that is a still slower technique.

You're right. Hole hasn't to be exactly centered when turning regular pens, but I think a dead center hole is a must when you try to do something like celtic knots, which I really really want to do sometime.

 

[jar6571]

I just got my PSI chuck yesterday. I am a "newbie" but I love it!

 

[Donovan's Corner]

I use a Nova scroll chuck to drill on the lathe and a Harbor Freight 1/2" drill chuck. They have worked very well for the last six years. I added the pin jaws last year (won them here) and wish I had added them years ago.

The drill chuck you picked looks very nice. I prefer the scroll chuck to the PSI chuck because I can use the chuck for additional things beyond just drilling.

Dittos to what Chris (thewishman) said. I own two Nova chucks, so I dedicated one of them to drilling blanks, using a set of pin jaws.

The other advantage to using a scroll chuck is that you can use it to drill round blanks. I have a bunch of 3/4" exotic scraps, and rather than trying to get them square enough to chuck, I turn them round between centers, and then drill them on the lathe in the Nova chuck.

You can drill square blanks as well with the Nova midi chuck as well as round.

 

[watch_art]

chuck

Tools4cheap LLC Online Machine Shop Tooling Store: Keyless 3/4" Drill Chuck,Drill Chucks

Here's a 3/4 drill chuck. Wish I'd have bought this instead of the one I did. A bit more versatile.

 

[Tim Hughes37]

At what speed would you drill?

 

[walshjp17]

Slow -- About 350 to 450 RPM.

 

[Smitty37]

I use the lathe mostly on blanks that are too long for the drill press. I did all of my slimlines using a drill press and still do.

I actually find the lathe to be too cumbersome setting up and too slow drilling. I do drill some things on the lathe where low speed is important. I have a Baracuda and a half inch keyed chuck for the lathe.

Now that might change if I ever get a little better lathe....

 

[mikespenturningz]

My only reservation in purchasing this item is the fact that it is not usable for anything else. For instance I used my nova 3 chuck tonight to hold an end of a blank and made a wooden finial from the piece. You could not do that with this item. I use my chuck way too much to even think about spending the money on the PSI blank chuck. Get the Nova 3 and a set of pin jaws and you will be styling.

 

[mikespenturningz]

Andy you are a wildman. 3000 pens per year. Gail (my wife) thought I was crazy making 300 last year. I cannot imagine making 3000 pens per year. But then again you do it for a living I assume I cannot think you also work a full time job... I don't worry about a few minutes here and there but if I was in production like you are I would also worry about it. Wow I am impressed.

 

[flyitfast]

IMHO, the dedicated pen drilling chuck is the best product that PSI offers, and one of the few things I would buy from them again.

I WISH this chuck opened about 1/4 inch more. That would making drilling goofy, oversized and segmented blanks much easier.

Andy, have you seen the newest drilling chuck for blanks from PSI? It is just like the original but designed for bottle stoppers so it opens a whole lot wider. Might get you that 1/4in you need or more.
I agree with you on this being the best for most blank drilling.

One thing to everyone, when using it make sure you put the blank all the way into the jaws. If you put the blank too far away from the inside end, you stand a chance of forcing the jaws out of shape. DAMHIKT. I do the blanks differently in my new replacement chuck!!! Blank goes all the way in..........keeps the jaws square.

gordon

 

[rebel1]

I just bought both of these last week and it is the best way to drill that I have found

 

[mmayo]

I have a HF drill press that run out a bit and travels 2", but it will drill pens well when you move the blank up after using up the 2". The hole is a bit larger due to HF sloppiness. It is quick. I purchased the PSI small pen chuck and drill chuck for the tail stock and it is slow but very accurate. Perfectly centered without a thought and tight true holes through the blank. When it is expensive wood or special project this is the way for me. I guess it teaches me patience as a byproduct too.

 

[thewishman]

I was given a PSI dedicated blank drilling chuck soon after posting in this thread. It is WONDERFUL!

 

[oneleggimp]

I have the two items you show except that my drill chuck has a no.1 morse taper arbor rather than a no.2 (since my lathe has a no. 1 morse taper for both the headstock and tailstock morse tapers) and it is keyed rather than keyless. I too belong to the camp that favors keyed chucks. It works very well for me In retrospect, I wish I'd gotten the bigger capacity pen blank drilling chuck so I could use it for bottle stopper blanks and oversized pen blanks. Live and learn. It was a matter of trying to save a few bucks and now regretting that I didn't spend the little extra iitially. Just my thoughts.