Turning pens

[kasandrich]

I have just taken delivery of a Planet pen mandrel kit, and some pen kits. It all seems fairly straight forward, but I was wondefing how people drill the blanks for the tubes to fit in?

Do you drill them in a drill stand or in on the lathe, if on the lathe how do you hold and support them.

Any tips and advice on drilling the blanks gratefully recieved, and any other tips on the pen making process.

 

[CHJ]

Here is a LINK on how I drill mine.
If you use a 4 jaw chuck on the lathe to hold your blank you must make sure that the headstock and tailstock are correctly aligned, else the drill will not run true down the centre of the blank.

 

[loftyhermes]

I drill mine on the lathe, I pop mark each end and then drill mine with the Jacobs chuck on the headstock (it’s been drilled and tapped ¾ x 16 to fit), I hold the blank with waterpump pliers to stop it spinning and push with the tailstock.

 

[John. B]

I drill mine with the pillar drill.
I square them off then with a drill vice with a small engineers square,
(that makes sure they are truly vertical) and in line with the drill bit.
I also use a spur drill bit. Cut the blank a little longer than you need, it won't then matter if there is a little breakout at the bottom.

John. B

 

[PaulH]

I currently use a pillar drill, vice and and square but came across this recently. Haven't tried it but it looks simple and practical to me!

Paul.

 

[CHJ]

I currently use a pillar drill, vice and and square but came across this recently. Haven't tried it but it looks simple and practical to me!

Paul.

Several forum members have been using variations on that method for several years, an almost identical one used by Paul.J. can be seen at the end of my earlier link above dated 2007.

 

[Blister]

Axminster sell this one

http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.asp? ... =1&jump=44

if you intend doing them in bulk :wink:

 

[Argee]

Here's a page I did a while back on the process. HTH

Ray

 

[CHJ]

Here's a page I did a while back on the process. HTH

Ray

Thanks for popping that link back up Ray, had mislaid it during machine swaps, didn't find it last night, other tasks on hand.

 

[Walter Hall]

I find the most accurate way to drill a blank is by mounting it on the headstock in a chuck fitted with pin jaws running at a low speed and drilling with the drill bit in a Jacob's chuck in the tailstock.