Fish30114
Member
OK folks, I am wanting to continue turning some pens from metal, Aluminum, Copper, Brass--I have been able to make several I am pleased with using pieces of Cigar Pen kits to finish them--where I am running into trouble is with getting a dead center hole drilled for a small bit-i.e. 7/64" for the tip of a refill.
I have been through about 6 small center drills, the tip of them keeps breaking off in the metal piece I am attempting to drill, so far only copper. These center drills are of questionable quality, I bought several sets through Amazon and they were all cheap in price...but having said that I have tried several speeds and in all cases I was feeding the bit in very slowly--I have only been successful in getting one hole drilled dead center, and on that one the center drill didn't break-so maybe that's the key, but I just can't seem to get one of these center drills for a small bit not to break, and once that happens I have to scrap the entire bar of copper I was working with! My headstock and tailstock are aligned beautifully, but if I just try to drill a hole with just the drill bit, they are hideously misaligned.
I would like to be able to achieve this without having to go to a metal lathe, I have been satisfied with the shaping I have been able to achieve on the several I have built, but on all these, I installed a brass tube in a larger hole I drilled through the middle of the bar stock and then trued the pieces up to match the bushings for the pens. I am really trying to figure out how to get the center drilled for now!!
Any help/info is appreciated!!
I have been through about 6 small center drills, the tip of them keeps breaking off in the metal piece I am attempting to drill, so far only copper. These center drills are of questionable quality, I bought several sets through Amazon and they were all cheap in price...but having said that I have tried several speeds and in all cases I was feeding the bit in very slowly--I have only been successful in getting one hole drilled dead center, and on that one the center drill didn't break-so maybe that's the key, but I just can't seem to get one of these center drills for a small bit not to break, and once that happens I have to scrap the entire bar of copper I was working with! My headstock and tailstock are aligned beautifully, but if I just try to drill a hole with just the drill bit, they are hideously misaligned.
I would like to be able to achieve this without having to go to a metal lathe, I have been satisfied with the shaping I have been able to achieve on the several I have built, but on all these, I installed a brass tube in a larger hole I drilled through the middle of the bar stock and then trued the pieces up to match the bushings for the pens. I am really trying to figure out how to get the center drilled for now!!
Any help/info is appreciated!!