Drill press?

[Jay_bobo]

Do I need a drill press to drill the holes in a blank or can I just use a hand held drill and maybe in a while I could buy one. Any help is nice thanks! I'm new so please anything is good!

 

[StephenM]

Get a chuck to hold the blank and a Jacobs chuck and drill them on the lathe. Since I started doing that, I put a bolt in the drill press and use it as a press.

 

[Dan Masshardt]

Interestingly, woodcraft has just introduced a pen blank vise that you can use a hand drill with.

Expensive and no idea how well it works.

I drill in the lathe. Others use drill press.

 

[JCochrun]

I use my lathe to drill blanks. My drill press gets used for drilling larger projects.

 

[Karl_99]

I use a heavy duty bench top drill press to drill blanks. I am working on a second lathe so I may try drilling with that.

I would think it would be very difficult to drill straight and true with a hand drill, even if it was in some type of jig.

 

[Sabaharr]

If all you want to drill is your pen blanks for now then all you need is a four jaw chuck for the head stock and a drill chuck for the tailstock. There are many articles and tutorials on here showing what you need and how to do it. The four jaw will also have th added benefit of allowing you to turn other objects like anything you can start off with a tennon on the end. This would include christmas ornaments, small bowls, whatever your imagination can come up with. I have a drill press in my shop but it isn't used at all for pen making.