drilling centrally

[Penpal]

i will always use my X Y base and vice on the drill press knocks spots off any other way for me. Showed it to Mark.

Peter.

 

[21William]

The best way I've found is not to use a bench drill but to do it on the Lathe. What I do is centre drill the blank at both ends, turn it round between centres and then put it in the chuck for drilling. Perfect results every time ... as long as you're careful.

 

[Penpal]

William I like this mate.

Peter.

 

[21William]

I actually stumbled across the idea really. I had a number of blanks that I wanted to see what they looked like before committing to making a pen from them so I turned a number of blanks between centres. Drilling in the Lathe afterwards was a no brainer.

 

[Pierre---]

I prefer to drill on the lathe, but I usually use a metal drill bit. A brad point db is made to go across the grain; along the grain, it will love to follow it. Never have problems with metal db, only it heats up a bit more maybe.

If the shape of the piece to be drilled is too awkward, I mark where I want the hole to start and ends, I make a shallow hole freehand with the db at one end, I chuck the db in the headstock, the end of the piece with the little hole touching the db, the other in the tail stock, I hold the piece with pliers and the hole is exactly where I want it to be. The blank has to be a little longer than the tube. I find it useful too for some segmented blanks and antlers.

 

[Penpal]

The acid test for me was drilling 1/2 inch Corian that had to be centrally drilled to be of any use at all. All done on the drill press easily. So many ways so many days.

Peter.

 

[mdcotton]

thanks everyone, help much appreciated. problem now solved. using pen jaws nd jacobs chuck method.
mark