Wooden Straws?

[widows son]

I have been asked by a youth group to turn some wooden straws. One of the kids bought one at a Renaissance Faire. It's about 8" long and turned on a lathe.
I thought about drilling the blank from both ends and meet in the in the middle. The straw I saw did not have a liner so I am assuming it's sealed by submersing the straw in a food safe finish? Suggestions are welcome.

john wallace

 

[bitshird]

Sounds like a hard drilling job, I have a 6 inch Norseman 3/8 for doing Long Clicks, and even drilling on my lathe in a good chuck, it gets kind of weird after about 4 inches.

 

[redfishsc]

Agreed with Bitshird. Going to be tricky to drill.


I drill everything on my lathe, but if you can find a bit long enough, give it a shot. You'll need to drill at a higher speed, and purge the chips frequently, to have a good clean interior.


From there, find a mandrel that will hold it, and turn it on the mandrel.

Stick to closed-grain, tough woods like hard maple, osage, beech.

Open grain stuff like oak, ash, and walnut will probably leak like crazy.

 

[Holz Mechaniker]

A buddy of mine made straws, though he did use a brass liner.

 

[seamus7227]

HF sells drill bits that are like 15-20 inches long, i believe they are for lamp making, but they could work for this application as well.

 

[crabcreekind]

my dad has like a 20ft long drill bit for lamp making. i think it worked pretty good, but then again its been like 2ys since he's made a lamp

 

[seamus7227]

my dad has like a 20ft long drill bit for lamp making. i think it worked pretty good, but then again its been like 2ys since he's made a lamp

seriously???that is a long drill bit