Drilling on the lathe?

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Scooley01

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I'm tired of fighting with my drill press, I want to start drilling on the lathe!

Anyone have any experience with the PSI Dedicated Pen Blank Drilling Chuck? Can you use that chuck for anything else? Can I just get any chuck where the jaws all move centered and use it? Obviously I'll also need a drill chuck...
 
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I bought the drilling chuck from PSi when I started because didn't have money for a drill press. Still using it and works fine for me. Still don't have a drill press. Hope this helps.
 
Scooley01 said:
I'm tired of fighting with my drill press, I want to start drilling on the lathe!

Anyone have any experience with the PSI Dedicated Pen Blank Drilling Chuck? Can you use that chuck for anything else? Can I just get any chuck where the jaws all move centered and use it? Obviously I'll also need a drill chuck...
Click to expand...

Do you have MT2 taper. If so check HF, is now $14.99 item#42340 half inch MT2 taper drill chuck.
 
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A four-jaw scroll chuck would work as well as the dedicated pen blank drilling chuck, and be useful for many other things. A self-centering chuck will work well enough if your blanks are truly square, but an independent-jaw chuck would be best, allowing you to accurately center non-square (and other shape) blanks.

It will also allow you to offest the blank from the spindle's center to allow for a tailstock that isn't in alignment.
 
Scooley01 said:
Anyone have any experience with the PSI Dedicated Pen Blank Drilling Chuck? Can you use that chuck for anything else? Can I just get any chuck where the jaws all move centered and use it? Obviously I'll also need a drill chuck...
Click to expand...


I bought the dedicated pen blank chuck a few months ago, and I consider it one of my best purchases. Before using it I used pin jaws on my Nova G3, and it worked fine, but I hated changing jaws all the time between pens and bowls. I also have the drill chuck from HF, and it works fine, I prefer it to the keyless drill chuck model that I already had.
 
I purchased the dedicated blank chuck from PSI when I was getting all my stuff. I didn't really want to spend the $$ on a drill press. I really like the blank chuck and have been very happy with it. I have nothing to compare it to, since I am new at all of this, but it does the job and does it well.
 
With the PSI chuck, you are required to drill centered holes. Nothing wronge with a centered hole. However, with the FOG wood I mostly use here, I find that on occasion the hole needs to be somewhat off center to grab the best looking figure in the wood. I would call that about 20% of the holes I drill. Without a drill press or an independent jawed chuck, that will not be a possibility. On top of that, the PSI chuck is a one thing tool. It does the thing it is designed for and that is that. Whereas a chuck is usable for many different things.
It is your money, use it as you see fit. This has been my $0.02 today.
Charles
 
For about 20 dollars more i picked up the wood river chuck from woodcraft and i love it. it does not limit you as much as the dedicated pen blank chuck does, just have to be a little careful when you are centering the blank, i have drilled a couple blanks that were off but it was completely my fault. either way i will never go back to my drill press again.

oh and +1 on the HF drill chuck, just don't loose the damn key, they are hard to replace (atleast for me it was)

Chris
 
On the independent jawed chucks, is it difficult to center things? Most of the holes I need are centered, but I agree that a uni-tasking tool is less desirable than a multitasker. I don't want to have to spend 20 minutes fiddling with the jaws to get them centered though...
 
I have a TALON & a VICMARC . . . but still see an advantage to the little PSI chuck.

Have one coming, hope it works well . . .

Will let you know how they compare for the specific task of drilling pen blanks . . .

Steve
 
It works fine unless you have a blank bigger than 7/8 inch. After 1 inch, the jaws are spread so far apart that you have to "fiddle" with it to make it center the blank. On 5/8 and 3/4 blanks it works ok.

For not a lot more money you can catch a Nova Midi chuck on sale for under $70. Adding pen jaws to the Nova adds a LOT more flexibility.
 
The drill press was not as accurate as the lathe for drilling BUT I have worn out my second tail stock screw. They only cost 9.99 plus 8.99 shipping so I may order two. Perhaps I am forcing my drill a little too much. Lubricating the tail stock seemed to help as well. The drill press took up too much space, was heavy and not very accurate. Mine was ancient Craftsman and I am sure quite worn out.
 
I drilled a blank on my lathe for the first time today. I found that after you start the hole, it's much easier to slide the tail stock in and out rather than trying to use the quill, at least on my midi lathe.

I liked it better then the crappy drill press I have been using and having to hand feed the last bit of the blank to get through.
 
I have the PSI Dedicated Pen Blank Drilling Chuck. I like it a lot but sometimes have to adjust the blank to get it to spin centered. It is like the very tips of the jaws don't close as much as the rear of the jaws.
I have a collet chuck coming and going to turn the stock between centers to get the blank to just under 3/4 round and chuck it in the collet. I am getting tons of wobble while drilling. Dunno if my tail stock is wearing or if the chuck is the problem. I will find out Monday or Tuesday I guess.
 
When you're sliding the tailstock in, are you sliding it along the bed, or turning the wheel on the end? Because there's a little room for wobble in my tailstock's bed motion...
 
I couldn't find a Drill Press I liked for the money I so I bought the PSI dedicated Chuck & Tail Stock Drill. It does a great job so far and I'm very happy, but I do plan to buy a Drill Press once I have enough money saved up for a good one.
I will say that I went to local pen turners house and picked up some blanks that he drilled out for me. He used a Floor Model Drill Press and even though her needed to raise up the last inch or so it was pretty darn fast to drill out the blanks.
Unfortunately, I have a few other things to get before I invest in a Drill Press. I'd like a Bench sander and some type of saw to play with, Luckily, I think I just scored a Delta 9 inch Band Saw for zip................nice .

--Rick McKinney
Medfield, MA
 
Scooley01 said:
When you're sliding the tailstock in, are you sliding it along the bed, or turning the wheel on the end? Because there's a little room for wobble in my tailstock's bed motion...
Click to expand...

I just slide it in and pull it out to clear the chips. I'm sure it's not dead accurate, but it's much closer than I was getting on the my drill press.
 
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