question on drilling blanks

[old folks]

Drilling pen blanks is a very important phase in turning a pen...
what is the most accurate pen drilling vice (jig) that you know of ?
I am replacing a bench top drill press with a floor model and now I want the most accurate drilling vice (jig) I can find. Thank you

 

[JimGo]

Tough question John. I use the PSI self-centering vise. It's not the best, though, for larger blanks beyond the size of a pen. However, it seems to work pretty well for pen-sized blanks. Good luck with your quest!

 

[Rifleman1776]

I bought a machinist type cross-slide drill press vice for my blank drilling. It has a verticle groove that allows straight setting of the blank. It grips tightly and the cross adjustment features permit placing the exact center right under the bit point. If course, it has other uses. I particularly like the ability to clamp the work in the vice and keep my hands away from the danger zone.

 

[dougle40]

I use a standard "V" block and clamp although if I were to go out and buy a new system it would be one of the self-centering type vises . I think that they would be so much easier especially when your drilling blanks of different sizes . Just set it up for the first one , clamp it down and drill any size blank that the vise will take .

 

[rduncan]

Though I'd jump in. Currently I use a pretty simple wooden screw clamp to drill. I think I'm going to take the plunge and get a Pen drill vise when Woodcraft has their 15% "bag" sale on May 7th (I think that's the date). Of course, I "need" to look at the DVR 3000 on sale then............

 

[jdavis]

We use a small machinest vice with notches in it. Works for all we do.

 

[MDWine]

Man... Just last week I bought the centering vise from Woodcraft... I LOVE IT! It is a very heavy vise, has nice thick "jaws", clamps to the table well (thanks griz!), and the centers are pretty accurate![]