Drilling into dowels - Jig ideas?

[gatheringsplinters]

Greetings,

I'm trying to drill holes through dowels perpendicularly and I was wondering if anyone knows of a jig to make the job safe and easily repeatable. I'll be drilling in dowels anywhere from a 1/4" thick to 1". I'd prefer to have a jig that can do different sizes rather than one for each size dowel. I'll be using the shopsmith so the jig can either be made for a drill press or with the horizontal boring option (which I love BTW).

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

[charlese]

This is what I use. http://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/cata ... n_vise.htm

Here's several 1/4" dowels used as hydraulic cylinder.

[lilgodwin]

I hope you don't have the same problem I do. I've been wanting to make some of those single/solid wood piece pens. I think the video floating around here was called something like Capt. Eddie's 12 Cent Pen.

I've got some 3/4" x 16" dowels I wanted to cut into 1/3 and bore out the space for the pen inserts. But everytime I do, the extra long drill bit drifts off to the side of the dowel and won't go through straight.

From what I recall, the guy in the video does it by hand. Crazy! I can't get it to go straight by using a V shape cut in a base block to hold the dowel with the miter gauge clamping it down.

[ERLover]

You could make a simple V block to lay the dowels in, I would also use a bit with a center point.

[reible]

You could go this way:

dowel drilling.jpg (32.9 KiB) Viewed 10833 times

If you want, actually make that should add some sacrificial wood to the table and fence for through holes.

A 2 x 4 or such with a "v" notch will also work or they make jigs like this that add easy to use clamps but you can do just about the same thing many many ways.

They also make a tool that has looks like an upside down "Y" with an indicator to help you find the center. Right at the moment I don't recall what they are called...... if it comes to me later I let you know. I have one on my to be purchased list so I can look it up.

Ed

[gatheringsplinters]

I did make myself a quick v-grooved jig but my issue was that as I withdrew the drill bit the dowel would try to move upward and I'd get an oblong hole. Might try to secure the top portion of the dowel some how..

Part of my issue is that I'm working with length of dowels that are less than 2" long.

Still contemplating...

[charlese]

Sprry I mis-read your original post ("perpendiculary").

The small Benchtop vice would also work for this. There is a V groove that runs across the vise jaws as well as vertically.

[reible]

I did make myself a quick v-grooved jig but my issue was that as I withdrew the drill bit the dowel would try to move upward and I'd get an oblong hole. Might try to secure the top portion of the dowel some how..

Part of my issue is that I'm working with length of dowels that are less than 2" long.

Still contemplating...

Do they need to be just 2" long when you drill the hole? Like a lot of things it is often better to cut it after the operation like drilling or routing are done.

I have no idea what equipment you have so I might mention that a mouse trap can be used to hold stock...... I'll let you take it from there with just this one link:

http://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/gener ... 13404.html

BTW the tool I mentioned earlier is called a "center finder for round stock"

An example can be found here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000D ... 1_1&sr=8-1

Ed

[rpd]

Here is a video showing the method that Reible posted.
start at 4:20
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dGHAaLHCcI[/youtube]

[rpd]

I hope you don't have the same problem I do. I've been wanting to make some of those single/solid wood piece pens. I think the video floating around here was called something like Capt. Eddie's 12 Cent Pen.

I've got some 3/4" x 16" dowels I wanted to cut into 1/3 and bore out the space for the pen inserts. But everytime I do, the extra long drill bit drifts off to the side of the dowel and won't go through straight.

From what I recall, the guy in the video does it by hand. Crazy! I can't get it to go straight by using a V shape cut in a base block to hold the dowel with the miter gauge clamping it down.

This is off topic to the OP, I have started a new thread showing how I drill pen blanks, it works the same for the longer blanks but you will have to move the headstock part way through drilling to get the full depth. http://shopsmith.com/ss_forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=17846