Drilling Paper with a ShopSmith

[rpd]

Earlier this year I ran across a reference to drilling paper using thin wall tubing in a drill press. (If I could remember where I would post a link. )

Last month I found a pdf file for a Speed Selector Wheel on the ERdocuments forum.

SpeedSelectorWheelphoto.JPG (238.31 KiB) Viewed 1185 times

So I made one, it would have been nicer if I had printed it in colour, but it still turned out great.
I used a sharpened pen tube to drill the holes, (and a short length of the same tube to rivet the wheel together). This worked very well, nice clean holes through the paper, poster board and foam core board that I used.
Here is a copy of the file for any 10ER fans that may be interested

SpeedSelectorWheel.pdf

(782.76 KiB) Downloaded 647 times

Earlier this month I picked up an "new" toy, a used MIG welder. I printed the manual for it from a file I got online (64 pages) and again I drilled the holes using a pen tube, this time I took pictures.
This is how I sharpened the tube, the diamond hone was too slow so I changed to a file and that made short work of it.

sharpentube.JPG (206.12 KiB) Viewed 1185 times

And here it is in action.

drillingpaper.JPG (191.41 KiB) Viewed 1185 times

[charlese]

Very interesting post, Ron! I'll remember your paper punch/drill method!

Most interesting to me is the round selection wheel. When in the Army, we were supplied with round slide rules, nicknamed prayer wheels. That was an excellent solution to give us a 30 inch slide rule. Very accurate!

[berry]

I have a need for a paper drill now and then, thanks for an interesting post.