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Driling pen blanks

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Driling pen blanks

Postby Andyp » 10 Sep 2016, 10:29

Which methods do you pen turners use/prefer.

Drilling vertically on the bench drill. How do you hold the blank?

Drilling horizontally on the lathe with chuck in tail stock. How do you hold the blank? Which jaws?

I would prefer to use the lathe but the C jaws in the Axminster chuck have a tendency not to hold the blank perfectly horizontally. The Sorby Pen Jaws Image
seem to be ideal but I cannot buy another chuck just for this purpose.
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Re: Driling pen blanks

Postby 9fingers » 10 Sep 2016, 14:05

As an engineering problem if I did not have a 4 jaw chuck, I'd mount a 90 degree angle plate onto your lathe faceplate and then clamp the square blank to that.
Adjust the mounting of the angle plate and the mounting of the blank with the tailstock centre. Tighten and drill.

If you have a batch to do, make sure the blanks are all the same size and use some stops to facilitate rapid change over of blanks.

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Re: Driling pen blanks

Postby Dalboy » 10 Sep 2016, 18:29

Can you get long nose pin jaws for your chuck like the Sorby Ones as they are the ones I use and have a greater use than the pen jaws.
If not then all I did was use my vice on the pillar drill with two pieces of wood with v cuts and two dowels to keep them in line will take photo's after the weekend
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Re: Driling pen blanks

Postby Andyp » 10 Sep 2016, 20:07

9fingers wrote:As an engineering problem if I did not have a 4 jaw chuck, I'd mount a 90 degree angle plate onto your lathe faceplate and then clamp the square blank to that.
Adjust the mounting of the angle plate and the mounting of the blank with the tailstock centre. Tighten and drill.

If you have a batch to do, make sure the blanks are all the same size and use some stops to facilitate rapid change over of blanks.

Bob


I do have a 4 jaw chuck Bob but the C type dovetail jaws do not grip enough of the edges of long staight square blanks to keep it horizontal. I will try to better centre the blank using a live centre on the tail stock.
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Re: Driling pen blanks

Postby Andyp » 10 Sep 2016, 20:14

Dalboy wrote:Can you get long nose pin jaws for your chuck like the Sorby Ones as they are the ones I use and have a greater use than the pen jaws.
If not then all I did was use my vice on the pillar drill with two pieces of wood with v cuts and two dowels to keep them in line will take photo's after the weekend


I only have a bench drill Derek and with a long drill and a long blank there is not enough room under the chuck.

Nearest jaws that I can see by Axminster are spigot jaws. I am surprised that Axminster do not do something similar to the Sorby pen jaws as they seem ideally suited for the purpose.
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Re: Driling pen blanks

Postby 9fingers » 10 Sep 2016, 20:17

Not familiar with strange woodturning chuck jaws. My metal lathe ones are simple straight line jaws that you use to grip on a face so you can hold cylindrical or square stock and some odd shapes with care

Like this one

http://www.industrybuying.com/independe ... -FAM26386/

Have you got one of those hollow tailstock centres that you can pass a drill up the middle of?

like this http://www.technologystudent.com/equip1/wturning8.html

Scroll down a bit.

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Re: Driling pen blanks

Postby 9fingers » 10 Sep 2016, 20:25

Looking again at your photo Andy
Image

is this a 4 jaw type? I can't quite see but if it is then fit four of those tall jaws and grip the faces not the corners and you should be fine.
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Re: Driling pen blanks

Postby justaskin » 11 Sep 2016, 07:28

Hi Andy
I use axi pt# 504481 internal jaws they will cope with any out of square blank not had a problem to date.
Further to this make the centre of the end line up with the tail stock centre then crank up the head stock. Then true up the blank, this way you will get the maximum use of the available blank.

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Re: Driling pen blanks

Postby Rod » 11 Sep 2016, 08:59

I'm suffering from a senior moment as I've made loads of pens in the past and cannot remember how I made them??
I've got a Nova chuck with a lot of extras and a case of pen mandrels.

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Re: Driling pen blanks

Postby Andyp » 11 Sep 2016, 16:23

I have had another go pushing the blank right through the jaws so it is not just being held by the dovetails and centering with a live centre in the tail stock before tightening. I seems a lot better.

Another question though, how tight fitting should the brass barrel be in the hole. I was expecting a friction fit. Mine is definitely a loose fit. Is that normal? A 7mm colt pen drill was used.
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Re: Driling pen blanks

Postby DaveL » 11 Sep 2016, 19:27

The brass tubes would be difficult to glue in if they were a friction fit, no room for epoxy (what I use) and if you tried super glue, there would be a good chance of it grabbing before the tube was fully inserted.
Is the drill a snug fit in the holes? If the blanks moved as you were drilling them that could result in over size holes.
Axminster do a couple of jaw sets that could be used the hold the blanks, CYLINDER jaws the 25 mm ones, item # 310424 would I think be quite good, giving the long support that is lacking with the C dovetail jaws.
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Re: Driling pen blanks

Postby Andyp » 11 Sep 2016, 20:10

DaveL wrote:The brass tubes would be difficult to glue in if they were a friction fit, no room for epoxy (what I use) and if you tried super glue, there would be a good chance of it grabbing before the tube was fully inserted.
Is the drill a snug fit in the holes? If the blanks moved as you were drilling them that could result in over size holes.
Axminster do a couple of jaw sets that could be used the hold the blanks, CYLINDER jaws the 25 mm ones, item # 310424 would I think be quite good, giving the long support that is lacking with the C dovetail jaws.


Dave, the drill seemed quite snug on the last one I test drilled. I only have super glue at the moment and the first test seemed to go ok. Which epoxy do you use? I do have some Wests 2 parts but that would be a fag for a small quantity.

Thanks for the heads up on the cylinder jaws.
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Re: Driling pen blanks

Postby Rod » 11 Sep 2016, 22:38

Seem to remember I used superglue but a slower setting type.

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Re: Driling pen blanks

Postby Dalboy » 12 Sep 2016, 06:58

The tube should slide in easy but not be a floppy fit. If it is quite close a fit then super glue is fine but for a more looser fit then I would either use Gorilla or two part epoxy I prefer the later. If you use gorrilla glue then plug the ends of the tube and also find a way of stopping the tubes from being pushed out as I have had that happen to me.
If the glue does not get into all of the gaps you will end up with dry a join so when turning the wood/acrylic can break away from the tube
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Re: Driling pen blanks

Postby Dalboy » 12 Sep 2016, 07:06

9fingers wrote:Looking again at your photo Andy
Image

is this a 4 jaw type? I can't quite see but if it is then fit four of those tall jaws and grip the faces not the corners and you should be fine.
Bob


The jaws you are looking at only come as a pair and are made for pen turning where as the ones I linked to are a full set of jaws.
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Re: Driling pen blanks

Postby Andyp » 12 Sep 2016, 08:26

Dalboy wrote:The tube should slide in easy but not be a floppy fit. If it is quite close a fit then super glue is fine but for a more looser fit then I would either use Gorilla or two part epoxy I prefer the later. If you use gorrilla glue then plug the ends of the tube and also find a way of stopping the tubes from being pushed out as I have had that happen to me.
If the glue does not get into all of the gaps you will end up with dry a join so when turning the wood/acrylic can break away from the tube


Thanks Derek,
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Re: Driling pen blanks

Postby Andyp » 12 Sep 2016, 08:32

Dalboy wrote:
9fingers wrote:Looking again at your photo Andy
Image

is this a 4 jaw type? I can't quite see but if it is then fit four of those tall jaws and grip the faces not the corners and you should be fine.
Bob


The jaws you are looking at only come as a pair and are made for pen turning where as the ones I linked to are a full set of jaws.


Thanks Derek, from what I have read the Sorby jaws will not fit on the Axminster chuck. I will persevere with what I have and think about the Axminster equivalent that Dave mentioned and the internal jaws that Richard uses. I almost have enough to justify an order ;)
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Re: Driling pen blanks

Postby Dalboy » 12 Sep 2016, 13:25

I was at a Woodfest show the weekend and Axi had a gazebo there got a 10% off voucher and also won a £10 gift voucher for them at the last club meeting luckily I need some stuff so will be ordering in the next couple of days
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Re: Driling pen blanks

Postby DaveL » 14 Sep 2016, 18:53

Andy,

I buy the 5 minute epoxy, I have used a few different makes, they all worked so I think any should be OK. I have one lot of 90 second that I have not used, I think I got it without looking at what I had picked up, it should be OK for a single pen glue up but would be a problem doing 3 or 4 at a time as I usually do.Image
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Re: Driling pen blanks

Postby Tusses » 15 Sep 2016, 11:03

you can get similar to above in poundland type shops
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