Shopsmith Forums

I was never very happy with my standard drill press when it came to centering the bit on the blank. With the Shopsmith in drill press mode, it's a snap. Just set your fence and lock the miter gage in the slot and you have a perfect way to place your pen vice where it needs to be!

OK, first let me say, I haven't done a pen yet.

But if I were trying to drill out a blank, I'd probably use a horizontal drill press, if they weren't just so dang expensive. (Or, are they?)

Set the rip fence as a backstop, with a piece of scrap behind the blank, and use a c-clamp to hold it to the table. (Now, if only I could find a horizontal drill-press, with a table-saw table, and a rip fence.)

steve

I use the boring method. I made a jig out of some spare mdf to hold in in place and drill away. Then it's a quick table removal, switch from drill Chuck to pen mandrel and I'm all set. I'm still working out details of the jig as I go along, but it's working great.

I also made a jig to use horizontally. I cut a v-groove in a piece of scrap, attached a hold-down clamp, and voila. With the V, after I get the jig positioned and clamped to the table, I only need to adjust the table vertically if I'm drilling different sizes.

roy_okc wrote:I also made a jig to use horizontally. I cut a v-groove in a piece of scrap, attached a hold-down clamp, and voila. With the V, after I get the jig positioned and clamped to the table, I only need to adjust the table vertically if I'm drilling different sizes.

With my setup, I never have to move the table. The vice that sits on the table is a self centering pen blank vice. I think I picked it up at woodcraft or Penn State Industries. Never fails! For repeat set ups, I have simply traced where to place the fence and miter bar with a fine tipped sharpie.

I should also note that this Mark V is almost always set up as a drill press. I do my turning on a different machine.

Some of you might find this post of interest:

https://forum.shopsmith.com/viewtopic.php?t=13485

This is the best way I know of doing the drilling. In fact I'm about to do a little drilling today. This was an item that was well worth it price and the output has been great.

Ed

Nick Engler demonstrated a whole process on Sawdust Session #8. I generally use that process except I have braced the main table against the fixed table to keep it from flexing during horizontal boring.