mmayo
Member
If your blanks have perfect holes read no further. Your method works for you and I'm happy about it.
If you are sometimes or often less than pleased with your drilling results read this.
I just finished drilling 80 pen tubes today using acrylic acetate, alumilite and inlace acrylester material. Except one inlace acrylester blank they all have nice entry and exit holes. They are centered on both ends. The photo shows some Sierra blanks on the exit hole side. Here's what I suggest.
Ditch your drill press for pen tubes forever. Sell your pen vise. Drill every pen tube on your lathe. Buy a chuck with pen jaws and a drill chuck. I bought and use a Baracuda G3 chuck and their pen jaws. The drill chuck was from Penn State many years ago. Both have drilled hundreds and hundreds of blanks.
Set your lathe for 500-1,000 rpm. Lately I have had better luck at 900-1000 than 500 rpms.
Be sure everything is tight and that the blank is perfectly seated.
Use Colt or Fisch pen drill bits. Your brad point and twist bits should be retired. I have four-five bits for each pen size and alternate in a careful way to let the bits cool. Yes that means 5 - 27/64 bits and 5 - 7 mm bits, but if you turn many it makes a huge difference. If you only make one pen at a time, buy one for every size tube you build.
Advance VERY slowly to enter the blank. This is a very important step. Think how slowly you exit and be even slower. I do not have time to drill special entry holes and my results do not suggest the need.
Once the entire drill width has entered the blank you can speed up a bit, but go slowly still.
Clear chips every 1/2".
All my bits have a mark to indicate the end of the tube. I check and re-mark them for each drilling session. I clear chips well 1/8" before the bit exits.
SLOW DOWN your travel at the exit. This is where blowout occurs. Watch the bit start to exit and be patient. Too fast or too many chips and bad things happen.
It works for me and I hope it helps you get consistent results.
If you are sometimes or often less than pleased with your drilling results read this.
I just finished drilling 80 pen tubes today using acrylic acetate, alumilite and inlace acrylester material. Except one inlace acrylester blank they all have nice entry and exit holes. They are centered on both ends. The photo shows some Sierra blanks on the exit hole side. Here's what I suggest.
Ditch your drill press for pen tubes forever. Sell your pen vise. Drill every pen tube on your lathe. Buy a chuck with pen jaws and a drill chuck. I bought and use a Baracuda G3 chuck and their pen jaws. The drill chuck was from Penn State many years ago. Both have drilled hundreds and hundreds of blanks.
Set your lathe for 500-1,000 rpm. Lately I have had better luck at 900-1000 than 500 rpms.
Be sure everything is tight and that the blank is perfectly seated.
Use Colt or Fisch pen drill bits. Your brad point and twist bits should be retired. I have four-five bits for each pen size and alternate in a careful way to let the bits cool. Yes that means 5 - 27/64 bits and 5 - 7 mm bits, but if you turn many it makes a huge difference. If you only make one pen at a time, buy one for every size tube you build.
Advance VERY slowly to enter the blank. This is a very important step. Think how slowly you exit and be even slower. I do not have time to drill special entry holes and my results do not suggest the need.
Once the entire drill width has entered the blank you can speed up a bit, but go slowly still.
Clear chips every 1/2".
All my bits have a mark to indicate the end of the tube. I check and re-mark them for each drilling session. I clear chips well 1/8" before the bit exits.
SLOW DOWN your travel at the exit. This is where blowout occurs. Watch the bit start to exit and be patient. Too fast or too many chips and bad things happen.
It works for me and I hope it helps you get consistent results.
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