dangit!

Ned Bulken

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Lakeport NY and/or the nearest hotel
OK, I put my pin jaws on the chuck today, and just before lunch I was turning a practice pen... until I took that 'last cut'. Evidently my drill bit wandered off centre and I blew through the side of the pen. ah well, it was only a piece of cherry, lots more where that came from. Going to go out and mill up a couple of blanks, with a saw kerf down the centre, and glued back together. HOpefully that will allow me to get a pen to completion. Oh, and these are just BIC drill and use pens, more for tool practice than anything else.
 
A sure way to fix the problem is to use hole starter bits Ned. HF has a set of 4 as does The Little Machine Shop. That issue will be eliminated ASAP!
 
Jim,
I'll look them up, One thing that I didn't mention is that I'm using a 6" long bit, I forget the diameter (just got home from a 9 hour drive), but it is just a shade over 1/8"... 5/32?. I bought that one bit so that I could drill an entire pen length in 'one shot' and use simple bic inserts. I'm going to do it the 'right way', I have a ton of blanks on hand, and I keep finding pen kits. 7mm and split blanks here I come.
 
The "wandered off center" syndrome is often caused by either advancing the bit too fast (forcing the hole) or a dull bit. Not sure a split blank will fix either of those issues.
 
A sure way to fix the problem is to use hole starter bits Ned. HF has a set of 4 as does The Little Machine Shop. That issue will be eliminated ASAP!

Jim can you show what a hole starter bit looks like? Or link to the bits you referring to please. ?

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