Drilling Blanks

[BKelley]

A lot has been said about what method to use in drilling blanks, drill press vs lathe. Both methods can end up in good results or unacceptable holes. I personally use a drill press.
My drill press is a heavy 15" Delta/Rockwell purchased back in the 70's. It is heavy enough to not have viberation and powerful enough to not bog down. The table has been squared with the spindle. I have a vise purchased from Woodcraft mounted to a piece of plywood and Magswitch magnets holding everything to the drill press table. I use Colt brand drill bits. I take my time drilling, let the bit do the cutting without forcing. Drill 3/8" or so and clear hole. I use different spindle speeds for different materials. The lathe will cut nice holes, but this what I use and very seldom do I mess a hole up. Maybe good equipment and good shop practices have more to do with good holes than methods.
Lots of luck,

Ben

 

[flyitfast]

Well put, Ben.
You have the parts in place to do a good job - with a mix of good equipment and following good procedures, the method to the end is less of an issue, especially if it works....
Thanks for sharing.
gordon

 

[Bree]

Colt parabolic bits do not require backing out the bit as they evacuate the chips. The mfg. recommends not backing them out and that has always worked for me. I confess that I do back out the last 1/2" on Inlace Acrylester blanks simply because they are so fragile at the bottom... even when taped.

I like your setup with the pen vise bolted to the table and prepositioned. I preset the fence and a stop jig and slide my vise into it. But yours is simpler and no doubt works great.

 

[BKelley]

Bree,

In theory you are right, but I back out drill for a couple of reasons, #1.. it's hard to break an old man from past practices, and #2.. wood in one pass might be alright , but aryclic and plastics tend to gum up and overheat both drill and blank. Thanks for reading and the comment.

 

[Robert111]

Okay, I'll jump into this. What speed do you guys drill at? I think that's very important. I use 350--unless I'm drilling through a segmented blank that has brass or aluminum, then I slow down to 250 and start drilling with a 3/16 pilot hole, creeping up to the final diameter about as slowly as I can, usually about 1/16th at a time.

This is one reason I like the lather--easy to change speeds and drill bits, and my spigot jaws surround the blank supporting it.

 

[PenMan1]

Goor points, Ben. I use both the drill press and a dedicated lathe for drilling.

My drill press setup is almost identical to yours, except I use a Paul Hoffman vise rather than the vise you use. I keep it loaded with a 10" Colt five star heavy duty parabic 7 mm bit. I use this station for razor drilling (I don't really make slims anymore). The beauty of this set up is that it is very QUICK AND with the vise bypasses the necessity for center finding. With razor blanks the bit can still drift a bit without causing any real problems.

I find lathe drilling a little more accurate, but much more time consuming. Since my business demands a bit of efficiency, I own 6 Jacobs chuck loaded with the 6 colt bits that I use most frequently. I use a PSI drill chuck on the head stock. With this setup I can drill both barrels of a JR gent on the lathe faster than most can drill one barrel and change a bit.

YOU HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD WHEN YOU SAID TO SET THE EQUIPMENT UP TO MEETS YOUR SPECIFIC NEEDS. Having 6 identical drill chucks would be ridiculous for most, but in my case, I am considering buying more chucks, as I can change drill setups faster than NASCAR can add fuel at a pit stop.

 

[76winger]

A lot has been said about what method to use in drilling blanks, drill press vs lathe. Both methods can end up in good results or unacceptable holes. I personally use a drill press.
My drill press is a heavy 15" Delta/Rockwell purchased back in the 70's. It is heavy enough to not have viberation and powerful enough to not bog down. The table has been squared with the spindle. I have a vise purchased from Woodcraft mounted to a piece of plywood and Magswitch magnets holding everything to the drill press table. I use Colt brand drill bits. I take my time drilling, let the bit do the cutting without forcing. Drill 3/8" or so and clear hole. I use different spindle speeds for different materials. The lathe will cut nice holes, but this what I use and very seldom do I mess a hole up. Maybe good equipment and good shop practices have more to do with good holes than methods.

Ben, I think you hit the nail on the head with these two points, and I'm guessing there's a lot of DP's out there that were taken out of the box set up and put to use without any fine tuning to ensure accuracy. Or used ones purchased that were never checked. Even lesser quality equipment can work good, for a while, if properly setup and aligned before going into service.

 

[Drstrangefart]

That should tell you all you need to know about how I do ALL of my drilling. It's actually been a great little press in spite of having only 2 inches of travel. Usually when I blow one out it was just me being lazy. I did upgrade the drill press with 2 ninjas and custom grips.

 

[navycop]

That should tell you all you need to know about how I do ALL of my drilling. It's actually been a great little press in spite of having only 2 inches of travel. Usually when I blow one out it was just me being lazy. I did upgrade the drill press with 2 ninjas and custom grips.

I too have a 2 inch of travel. How do you make it work? Do you drill 1/2 way then raise the vise?

 

[Drstrangefart]

That should tell you all you need to know about how I do ALL of my drilling. It's actually been a great little press in spite of having only 2 inches of travel. Usually when I blow one out it was just me being lazy. I did upgrade the drill press with 2 ninjas and custom grips.

I too have a 2 inch of travel. How do you make it work? Do you drill 1/2 way then raise the vise?

I raise the blank and clamp up and slide a block of wood under it. It's TOUGH to do a one-piece stretched Slimline like that, but with a good drill bit it's doable. My clamp is literally 2 pieces of wood with bolts and butterfly nuts to tighten and loosen it.

 

[PenMan1]

That should tell you all you need to know about how I do ALL of my drilling. It's actually been a great little press in spite of having only 2 inches of travel. Usually when I blow one out it was just me being lazy. I did upgrade the drill press with 2 ninjas and custom grips.

I too have a 2 inch of travel. How do you make it work? Do you drill 1/2 way then raise the vise?

If you are very careful with squaring your DP table, vise, etc, with a 2" quill travel and slow speeds, you should be able to drill half way, then turn the blank upside down in the vise and still drill accurately.

Just be sure to put the same corners in the same sides of the vise when you flip it.

 

[navycop]

Now the holidays slowed now I got around to taking a picture of my drillpress. As you can see the bit is to big to fit the wood (Maybe need a shorter drill bit?). The table is maxed out (lowered) as in the other picture. I was wondering if flipping the table over would give me ant more room?

 

[GoatRider]

I use my lathe for drilling, because I don't have a drill press. But it's a Taige micro-lathe, and what I do is put the bit in the headstock, usually with a collet, and clamp the blank in the horizontal milling vise:

http://www.taigtools.com/c1220.html

For fragile blanks, like Tru-stone®, I'll cut them 1/4 inch long, stop drilling before I get to the end, and then cut it to length.