Polaris with a small drill press

[kf4knf]

Although I am probably biting off more than I can chew on this one, I want to give buffalo horns a try. The texture of the material makes it pretty inviting. My apologies to those that are offended by turning such a material but I guess it’s a personal choice â€" I respect that.

Here is my dilemma. The horns I order are 5-6 inches long, round sticks. Since they are somewhat expensive I don’t want to ruin them by mis-drilling them right off the bat. I don’t have a drill press vise yet (working on that one). How could I drill an 11MM hole through the material with a few C clamps, a band saw and a drill press with 2.25 inches of travel. Really the challenge is in holding a round object for drilling…

Now, for the second part â€" the horn will be used to make a Polaris pen, so it must be drilled straight all the way through. Keep in mind, the drill press only has 2.25 inches of travel and a Polaris tube is much longer than that. HELP â€" and don’t tell me to get a better drill press. My wife will hunt you down for planting such an idea! [B)]

 

[gerryr]

Drill it on your lathe. I don't have a drill press and everything I drill is done on the lathe.

 

[JimGo]

If you don't go Gerry's route, you could:
1) square the table to the quill travel (very important, as any misalignment in the quill travel will result in crooked blanks);
2) get two pieces of 90 degree angle iron that are approximately 2" long;
3) mount each of those as close to perfectly square to the table as possible (such as in a home made version of the drill press vise discussed here: http://www.penturners.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=14889);
4) carefully align everything under the drill bit;
5) drill in little "bites", avoiding any significant heat build-up as that stuff will crack on you;
6) once you've hit the bottom of your quill travel, keep everything where it is, but loosten the grip on the blank;
7) slide the blank up in the angle iron and put a piece of 5/8" dowel roughly centered under the blank;
8) drill 'till you either drill through the last of the blank, or need to repeat steps 7 and 8.

Remember, you don't have to drill the entire 5-6 inches, since the Polaris is only something like 3.25" long, IIRC. I did it on a homebrew PR blank using my old Harbor Freight drill press with the same quill travel as yours.

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Edited to include the link to the drill press vise thread (http://www.penturners.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=14889 )

 

[kf4knf]

I will have to do it on the drill press, my lathe does not have a chuck that would allow the blank to be mounted. Its a low-end PSI lathe.

 

[redfishsc]

You can put a chuck on any PSI lathe with the proper adapter (from PSI of course, but it's usually cheaper than elsewhere either). I'd just get their inexpensive "utility grip" with the long jaws.

 

[Randy_]

No disrespect to Jim; but this sounds like some real aggie engineering!! I don't doubt that the method works; but I expect the actual execution is a little tricky. I would try try the method with a piece of scrap wood, first, before drilling an expensive blank!!

 

[JimGo]

Thanks Randy...I actually meant to suggest that! And I should add, the best choice is either a Paul Huffman vise, one of the vises from CSUSA/Woodcraft/PSI, or a set of jaws for the lathe. I have two different chucks for my PSI lathe that can (at least in theory...haven't tried) allow me to drill on the lathe.

 

[kf4knf]

Jim, I gave your idea a try - not exactly but the jist of it. It worked well. I agree Randy, its a round about way of doing things but when your on a budget it gets you up and turning. Thanks to you both for your advise.

Redfishsc, how much do those go for? I guess I can glance at the PSI site or catalog tomorow if you dont know off the top of your head.

 

[OSCAR15]

I have turned a Polaris in buffalo horn (actually several of them)
http://www.penturners.org/forum/photo_album_view.asp?cname=Main+Album&mid=2487&cid=2713
Let me know if I can help....

 

[jahlg]

one bit of advice when drilling the horn, where a respirator, they smell like burning flesh and hair!!!!!! But they turn beautiful, i did a pen ans pencil set for a silent auction donation, no one bid so i bought them back. Is that crazy??