10.5mm and 12.5 mm

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phillywood

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May 10, 2010
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San Antonio, TX, 78250, USA
I have ordered some Jr. Gent II kits form CSUSA and I am in need of those sizes of drill bits to get going here. I like to know if anyone knows of any good drill bits of these sizes worth spending the money on, since I have read in another thread that the drill bits sold by some of the vendors are inferior quality.
I ahve two bits sizes 31/64 and Z sizes that are close to the above final sizes, but I am just intending to do the initial drilling to get the bulk of the chips out and then use the actual sizes for the final drilling. My bits are not very high quality and I bought them form Big lits many years ago. they just come in numbers and fractions and letters. they are titanium coated and HSS bits not very top of the line.
any help would be appreciated.
 
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I haven't made a jr gent II in quite a while, so I am unfamiliar with the changes they made, but apparently the threads aren't as good. I have bougth some drill bits from AS (arizona silhouette) that I have been happy with, but not sure if the stock those sizes. As for a quality Jr. Gent Kit, I just started making the Jr. Gent Twist Pen (i never knew one existed) and am very happy with it. I get them from exoticblanks.

I have only completed two just to see how they worked and this was before I got bushings from Johnny CNC, so the lower tube is ever so slightly out of round, but they still look nice. They are heavy pens, but are the high quality I have come to expect from the gent or statesman series.
 
I measure the tubes with calipers , then select the best size bit. If you get one of the 100+ bit sets with all the fractions and letters, then you are set for everything except the full sized pens.
 
I haven't made a jr gent II in quite a while, so I am unfamiliar with the changes they made, but apparently the threads aren't as good. I have bougth some drill bits from AS (arizona silhouette) that I have been happy with, but not sure if the stock those sizes. As for a quality Jr. Gent Kit, I just started making the Jr. Gent Twist Pen (i never knew one existed) and am very happy with it. I get them from exoticblanks.

I have only completed two just to see how they worked and this was before I got bushings from Johnny CNC, so the lower tube is ever so slightly out of round, but they still look nice. They are heavy pens, but are the high quality I have come to expect from the gent or statesman series.

Jr. Gent Twist pen ? Did I miss something? I looked at the Exotics site and could not find this...now I have been up all night trying to finish a set of plans so perhaps I am a bit too drowsy to see straight at this point ...could someone point me in the right direction on this one....

thanks
 
Check your local hardware store

If they have the size most local hardware stores will have some pretty high quality bits. Have a good set of titanium bits with just about every size known to man and they work just fine. I also suspect they'll be lower priced.
 
I can buy just about any bit I need at the local "Tool and Supply" store. I'm not in a big city so I would guess that most places have a supply center for contractors somewhere nearby.
 
yep to those that didn't know about the Jr gent twist. when I go to Craftsupply i just look at roller ball and fountain pen kit category, never looked through the ballpoints. On Exotic Blanks, they have it listed but no picture and being lazy I just never saw it. But someone brought it up when I posted about trying to find a higher end twist pen like the cigar pen. I just made a two tone white top, black bottom that looks every bit as good as any mont blanc or what not I have seen at the store.
 
I bought my 10.5 mm drill bit from Exotic Blanks and am very happy with it. The price is quite good for the larger bit (although Ed did apologize for the high price). I don't know whether or not he carries 12.5 mm bits or not but you could, certainly, call him!

Dan
 
I have these kits and I flat didn't want to go out and buy more drill bits than the 100's I have now.

I can't remember which one 10.5 or 12.5 but I couldn't come very close to one of them so after drilling with the closest smaller bit I took a piece of dowel, wrapped some sand paper around it and while the lathe was spinning sanded out the inside of the blank until the tube slipped in ...
 
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