Wall Street 2 Pens

[Brentda1]

Quick question from a semi-newbie. I have been turning for about 3 years and doing pens for about 2 years....just simple slimlines. This past weekend stepped up to doing some Wall Street II from Woodcraft. Have drilled the blanks with the recommended bit (27/64) but the fit of the tube in the blanks seems a little sloppy. I drilled a piece of 2x4 taking care to make sure the piece was stable. It is still sloppy. Did I get a bad bit or is the nature of the beast with these kits.

I turned one pen after putting the tube in the blank with epoxy and it seemed to do well.

Thanks for the comments.

Brent

 

[DozerMite]

Do you have any run-out with your bit?

 

[dcannon]

I'm a newbie too, so take this for what it's worth...I had the same problems with several of my kits. I downsized a couple of bits that seemed sloppy such as my 10mm bit that I ended up using a 3/8" bit for. Eventually I started drilling on my lathe instead of my cheap drill press and found that a lot of the problem was with the press letting the bit wander a little too much. On the lathe, it was better right out of the gate, but not perfect. eventually I learned to just take it very slowly, and to turn the lathe off each time I reinsert the bit so I don't catch the edges in case it's not perfectly aligned. Maybe you could at least try that on the press if you don't want to jump to the lathe.

Or yes, I suppose it could very easily be a bad bit too.

Again, I'm still in the learning phase, so take this all with a grain of salt, it just sounded very similar to what I was experiencing. Unfortunately, I've not turned the Wall Street, or anything with the 27/64" bit, so I can't give any advice on that specifically.

Dan

 

[Dave Turner]

When you measure your 27/64ths drill bit with your calipers, is it measuring 0.4219 ? What does the outside of your WSII tube measure?

 

[Smitty37]

change size

Quick question from a semi-newbie. I have been turning for about 3 years and doing pens for about 2 years....just simple slimlines. This past weekend stepped up to doing some Wall Street II from Woodcraft. Have drilled the blanks with the recommended bit (27/64) but the fit of the tube in the blanks seems a little sloppy. I drilled a piece of 2x4 taking care to make sure the piece was stable. It is still sloppy. Did I get a bad bit or is the nature of the beast with these kits.

I turned one pen after putting the tube in the blank with epoxy and it seemed to do well.

Thanks for the comments.

Brent

Try a 13/32 bit or a 10.5mm metric.

 

[ed4copies]

I use 10.5mm -- sometimes it's a little tight in oily woods.

 

[Brentda1]

Thanks for the info...I did drill on the lathe using a Jacobson chuck. When it seemed sloppy I put the bit in my drill press and tried on some scrap with the same amount of slop. I have not put calipers on it yet.

Thanks again.

 

[amboyna]

Is it sloppy on both ends? If so I'm no help.
All I have been making lately is Wall St. II pens.And most of the time the exit hole is tighter than the entrance hole on my cheap drill press. So I start with an extra 1/4 inch on my blank. Most of the slop caused by the drill press ends up getting cut off. I know that is probably not the right way. But...

 

[ed4copies]

Single tube pens don't have a "grain match". The "grain match" was the reason we drilled from the center out and tried not to cut off the drilled end. So, with a one piece pen---there is no need for "rules".

 

[Skotty]

I had the slop issue with Wallstreets.Turns out it was my Delta's table wandering on the press.Once I started stabilizing the table the slop disappeared.To take it even further I bit the bullet and bought a Colt bit.

Just now getting my stuff in to start drilling on the lathe :biggrin:

 

[sekach]

I have never really had a slop problem when it came to drilling wood blanks, I did however have a bad problem with drilling out acrylic blanks that were storebought. I fixed the problem by drilling a pilot hole (in this case an 8mm bit would work fine), then I re-drilled it with the 27/64th bit to widen it out. The acrylic residue that was drilled out would cause the slop. I even pulled the drill bit out often to try and clean out the shavings but it still caused the slop. A pilot hole fixed that though...

 

[jttheclockman]

As mentioned droping down one size in the bit may solve the problem. But you may have other isses and mainly the bit being used maybe out of round. Roll it on a flat surface and see if it rolls true. If you have a tablesaw the top would be perfect. Drill presses especially cheap ones with cheap chucks on them can give you alot of problems with runout. When chucking up on a lathe make sure the parts are clean and free of dust, both mating surfaces. Start with the bit though.