# Blank Drilling Jig



## thostorey

This is a simple pen blank drilling jig and probably everyone on this forum already has one, either bought or home made. Just in case someone can use the ideaâ€¦. 

I was having trouble drilling all the way through the blank and in achieving consistently placed holes. Plus, it was taking me forever! This jig seems to have solved all that. This is â€œMark Iâ€ and Iâ€™ll probably end up by refining it a few times.  You can see it here.

http://www.woodshopphotos.com/albums/BS-Boxes/Pen_Drill_Jig.sized.jpg

The wood is oak because thatâ€™s what I had available. Two lengths 5â€ long, 2â€ wide and 11/4â€ thick. It is important to ensure that their lengths are identical or the jig will be out of wack when assembled. Joint the bottom surface so that the jig will sit flat on the drill press table. Place the board sides together and run them along the router table fence over a â€˜vâ€™ bit. I placed the â€˜vâ€™ about 11/2â€ from the end. It is critical that the â€˜vâ€™ be exactly 90 degrees to the bottom face of the jig,

Place the bottom of the jig on a flat surface, mark and install the hinge. Again, it is critical that the bottoms of the boards are parallel after the hinge is installed or the jig will â€˜rockâ€™ from one bottom face to the other.

Clamp a three-quarter inch blank between the Vees then drill a hole from one side to the other to accept a one-quarter inch bolt of the appropriate length. Youâ€™ll note that the hole is perpendicular to one board but no so the other. Re-drill the (non-perpendicular) hole in the board that will be closest to the wing nut, a bit size or so, wider to allow â€˜playâ€™. This will allow you to spread the jig a bit to get the blank in and out.

Chuck the appropriate size drill bit deep into the chuck. Place a blank in the jig, tighten the through bolt to hold it firmly in place. Align the blank just under the drill bit then clamp one side of the jig to the drill table. I used a clamp that came with my drill, available from tool stores. Drill the first blank as usual. I use an old denture brush (it's stiff) to clean the drill flutes and a shopvac to remove the dust and to help cool the drill bit. With this jig I have a â€˜freeâ€™ hand J.  Because my drill does not have enough travel, I cannot drill through the blank in one pass. When I have drilled down as far as the bit will go, I simply loosen the chuck, drop the drill bit down the Â½â€ inch required, retighten the chuck and continue to drill through the blank. To drill the second blank (and any other blank of the same dimensions) simply re-chuck the drill bit, loosen the jig bolt, insert the new blank and drill away as before. When drilling grain-matched blanks, I mark facing corners of each blank so that I can orient them in the jig the same way. You can experiment with this to see what works best for you.


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## Rudy Vey

Nice jig, Tom. I had made a similar one when I started making pens.
Rudy


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## Mudder

The picture seems to be missing.


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## tipusnr

Yep.  Looks like the hyperlink's broken.  The basic site is still operational but there were too many pages for me to search and see if the jig picture was there.  Looks like a contributory site and he may have taken his gallery down.

Still it is an interesting site and I'm going to go back and look some more later.  The basic site for those who don't surf well is www.woodshopphotos.com .


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## thostorey

Sorry about that folks, I reorganized my album a few days ago and that is one of the pics I eliminated[:I]. I thought that this thread had run it's course.

Tom


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## bnosie

Hi thostorey,

Any chance of reposting the pic of your jig?  Sounds really interesting, but I can't quite visualize it.

Thanks.


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## C_Ludwigsen

I second that!  I would like to see the jig again as I missed it the first time.


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## darbytee

Pleeeease Tom, can we see the picture again?


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## Mudder

Pretty please?
Huh? 
Will ya?


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## thostorey

Gimmy a bit and I'll have it up again.

Tom


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## thostorey

Here it is again, you lucky people!

[/url]http://www.woodshopphotos.com/albums/BS-Boxes/Dscn0427.sized.jpg[/url]

View this pic with my inital post in mind.

As simple as this jig is, I've not had to adjust it and I use it for every pen I make. However, it is very necessary to make sure that the routed 'v'groove is perpendicular to the base of the jig, else the drilled hole will be on an angle through the blank. Cheap and effective!  I don't yet know how to post multiple picutres or urls so I'll add another pic via another post[].

Tom


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## thostorey

Here's another view.

http://www.woodshopphotos.com/albums/BS-Boxes/Dscn0429.sized.jpg

My drill will not travel far enough to drill completely through the blank. I don't raise the base to complete the job; I loosen the collet and lower the bit about an inch. Works great.

Once you find the centre of one blank and clamp the jig, you don't have to mark the centres of following blanks as long as they are cut the same as the first. Pop 'em into the jig and drill away!

Remember to cut drill the though holes for the snugging bolt sloppy, else you will have problems spreading the jig 'legs'[]

Tom


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## Guest

I have a block of wood like that but I just put it into my DP vice and crank it down.


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## bnosie

That's very cool.  Thanks for reposting.  I have the problem of my quill not travelling far enough also.  Have you ever just loosened the wing nut on the jig and raised the blank up a little?  I suppose that it may cause the bottom to blow out when the bit breaks through.


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## Mudder

Thanks for reposting.
That is a slick idea. Simple yet everything you need.


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## wayneis

Bill, just make sure that you put a small piece of wood under the blank when you move it up and it will help the blow outs.  I keep all kinds and sizes of scraps by my drill press and they come in very handy.

Wayne


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## jwoodwright

I'm cheap and cut my blanks tight.  I have a step system ready as the travel on the 10" Ryobi is 2".  I plane down some 3/4" to 1/2".  So I always have a undrilled piece under the blank.  Then I drill slow and carefully...[]


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## wscrivens

The pictures are gone again :-(

I have been using two pieces of 3/4" oak, 2" wide by 4" long, with a "V" groove accross the width, cut on the circular saw.  I put them in a drill press vise with the "V" grooves facing and drop the blank in the resulting square hole.  I have a piece of scrap clamped to the drill press table to provide alignment in one direction and I align the other way by eye.

My problem, apart from the inaccuracy of the "eyeball" alignment, is that I, too have a drill press with only 2" of quill travel.  What I have been doing is drilling as far as I can. then with the quill in the up position, lifting the whole vise, fixture, and pen blank up onto the drill to finish the last 1/4" or so of hole.  This is awkward, and not the safest procedure around, so I'd like to see dome designs that get around the problem.

Walt


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## Fred in NC

Walt, join the club!  I also have a 2" capacity drill press.

What I do is just a little variation of your procedure.  I use a hand clamp to secure the vice to the table. I drill as far as I can and then stop the motor with the drill bit all the way  inside the blank, loosen the vice, raise the quill about 1/2", and tighten the vice again.  Then I drill the rest of the way through.

I have an extra vice for this, which I bought very cheap at HF, so the wood pieces with the groove have been glued to the vice jaws.


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## darbytee

I broke down and bought the centering jig from Woodcraft this weekend with the 25% off sale. I used it at the Freedom pen turn a thon and realized how much quicker and easier it was than the method I was using before.


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## wayneis

I agree Fred, they speed the procedure up quite a bit.  As long as the table is square to the quill then its easy to set it up if I have to something else with my drill press.

Wayne


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## dougle40

It seems like an awful lot of us have drill presses that only travel 2" !!!![:I]

My answer to this problem is -- I use a machinists "V Block" and clamp my wood into this with the V block clamp , then  ,similar to what Fred does , I drill down about 1" , then instead of raising the table I place a piece of scrap wood under the V block and continue drilling (as you can see in the photo) . Works like a charm and because the V block was originally designed for precission metal work it is always perfectly square to the table . 

I made one of the hinge type clamps and found that it doesn't always hold the blank properly , especially if the blank isn't square (3/4"  x 5/8" for example) but the V block will always hold the blank true to only 2 sides .




<br />

Hope this helps someone with this problem .

The V block is also excellent for drilling round objects too !!


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## bnosie

Hi Dougle40,

That machinists block is really cool, where do you get them?

Thanks.


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## dougle40

Bill ,
You can usually find them at any shop that deals in metal working tools or tool and die equipment . The attached web site does have some but they are about 1/2 the size of mine , but would still do the job . They can also be used to drill holes through any round item at 90 degrees . I just recently finished a model wood boat and one of the things I had to do was drill a #60 sized hole through a piece of 3/32" dowel at 90 degrees then another 90 degrees to that one and all you have to do is flip the V-block over to get perfect 90 degree holes .

http://www.houseoftools.com/subcat.htm?cat=2731


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## wscrivens

GREAT idea, Doug!

I don't know why the most obvious solution so frequently escapes me!  Now where on earth did I put those V-blocks???

Walt


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## Fred in NC

Good source for machinist's supplies:

www.use-enco.com


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## thostorey

The picture of my home-made jig was posted on a site that has since gone belly-up, hence, not pic available[8]. 

Looks like the Vee block would be one step better if it was possible to slide the blank up the block to compensate for the short throw of the drill bit. Faster that either raising the table or lowering the bit shaft in the chuck.

I wonder if Princess Auto (in Canada) would have vee blocks of the proper size? What would be the 'proper' size? 

EDIT Apparently it's a 'no' on Princess Auto[]


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## bnosie

I just checked the Grizzly catalog and they have several different sized V blocks.  Part numbers are H5608, H5609, H5610, H5611, H5612, H5613, and others it you'd like to search in their catalog.  Number H5610 looks pretty good, and it's only 16.95.


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## dougle40

Thostory,

It isn't necassary to move the wood or the drill bit , just do what I explained and place a scrap piece of wood under the V-block . If you check out the pic again you'll see that that is what I've done for the pic . Just shut off the drill , leave the bit in the blank and raise the quill and slip the sacrificial wood under the V-block and continue .


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## dougle40

Bill ,

If all you want a V-block for is to drill pen blanks then the one oyu said would be good , but if you wanted to use it for drilling holes that were at 90 degrees to one another then you would have to go for the #H5612 because of the clamping method , it allows you to lay the block on it's side for drilling too (that's the style that I use). It's just too bad that they only sell them in matched pairs , but then again if you have a friend who wants one too then you could split the cost and each end up with one.


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## thostorey

Got that Doug. Yep, that'd work just fine. Now if I could only find the proper vee block north of the 49th, I'd be in business.[] I don't have a problem ordering from the US but it takes forever for our customs folks to process the order (recently) and if it weighs anything, the shipping costs equal the cost of the item. I've taken to buying a lot of my pen supplies from Jacques Coulombe in PQ (PSI stuff) for the delay reason. A bit more costly but 7 day shipping.

Tom


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## thostorey

On further reflection [:I] my home made jig can be set up to do the same thing as the v-block. All I have to do is leave the bit down in the blank, shut off the drill, release the clamp, lift the bit with the blank still engaged and place a flat piece of wood uner the jig, then lower the drill bit til the jig contacts the underlying piece of wood (blank still engaged), reclamp and drill away! ]

Thanks for the idea!! Tom


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## dougle40

Tom ,

It seems to me that you're doing a lot of moving and repositioning for nothing  , unless you have your clamp fastened to the drill press table , just simply lift up the clamp and blank together and put the scrap wood underneath ! Just remember that everytime you reposition something you run the risk of something getting between the blank and the clamp and therefore actually changing the drilling pattern , you could end up with an off-centered or oversized hole . This comes from being a machinist for many years and I know what the effects of repositioning something in a V-block can be .


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