My Pen assembly tools.

[CHJ]

Finally settled on a method of assembling pen kits that suits my way of working.

Not claiming any originality as I've seen something similar for sale somewhere in the past.

The extra bits have been added near the bottom of my Pen 'how to' page.
Deciding factor was the ease of ensuring everything is lined up and the range of travel available on the drill press.

 

[Blister]

All clever stuff :wink:

 

[Paul.J]

Nice one Chas.
But could i just add the way i drill my blanks.
I sort of copied,was it Mark Simmons :?: on Devonwoodys clip,but made my own jig to locate the centres.
It is hinged one end and held together by hand,the jig is screwed from below on one side,and clamped to the drill bed.Saves having to mark each piece.
Also put an ordinary drill bit in instead of the spurred bit and it was a better fit.and also drilled quicked and cleaner.
All my blanks were 18mm square.Cut on a table saw,though my first few were cut on the bandsaw and still fitted the jig.



Paul.J.

 

[CHJ]

....
It is hinged one end and held together by hand,the jig is screwed from below on one side,and clamped to the drill bed.Saves having to mark each piece.

Basically a poor mans version of a self centring chuck Paul, nothing wrong with that :lol: I'm all for poor mans versions, but not of much use to me for a couple of reasons:
1. I'm lazy and my blanks are anything but a uniform size, a proper self centering chuck would take care of that though.

2. My drill table is not a fixed distance from the centre collum so any semi fixed clamp would have to be aligned with the spindle every time I wanted to drill and as I only do a few at a time I settle for marking.

....
Also put an ordinary drill bit in instead of the spurred bit and it was a better fit.and also drilled quicked and cleaner.

Me too, all but the very expensive spur bits are most likely to be ground off centre and it does not need much to enlarge the hole also because of the inexpensive way the spur is ground the cutting edge relief is often non existant.

 

[CHJ]

Paul, have added your Drilling Jig to page under tips.