lwalden
Member
I've been very satisfied with my current set-up for drilling blanks, which involves a delta variable speed drill press and a Paul Huffman vice, with one exception. When Im drilling segmented blanks where the two materials are of different densities, and I'm drilling in line with the seam, the bit tends to wander into the softer material a little more. I can start with an entrance hole that is dead on, and have it exit off center with the shift into the softer material. I've even tried this with 4 blanks back to back, rotating the orientation of the blank 90 degrees in the vise each time, and seen the variance follow the blank through this positioning, so I'm convinced it's not a small misalignment of the table/vise setup being plumb to the quill of the drill press. That said, I've seen many posts where folks have discussed that they drill on their lathes, using a jacobs chuck in the tail stock and some other type of chuck in the head stock that holds the blank. So my question, what are some of the better options for a chuck that doen't cost an arm and a leg? I bought a technatool chuck at woodcraft, but the jaws on it don't provide enough surface to hold a blank well. Are there different jaws I should be looking at for this chuck, or should I be looking at a different chuck entirely? Any guidance would be appreciated.