# Drill press travel...



## Clay3063 (May 10, 2018)

That moment when you buy a table top drill press to facilitate drilling holes in blanks only to find out that the travel is only 2". Hmm. About 1/8 less than what I need. So now I gotta either figure a way to increase the travel just a smidgeon or return it and try a different brand. This one is a Porter Cable we bought at Lowes. Nice drill. But as it is, just a paper weight....


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## gman2431 (May 10, 2018)

You can always make a fixture to Hold your blanks and drill as far as you can then slide blank up and finish the last little bit. Everything will need to be very square and parellel when you make one and clamp stuff up but it's what I do and it works.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## pinky (May 10, 2018)

Or if you have a chuck, drill them on the lathe.

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 3


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## Schroedc (May 10, 2018)

I'd return it. If it isn't going to work out of the box it's just a waste of money and space in my opinion. Get something that works and save the time and headache.

Reactions: Agree 5


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## gman2431 (May 10, 2018)

Schroedc said:


> I'd return it. If it isn't going to work out of the box it's just a waste of money and space in my opinion. Get something that works and save the time and headache.



I know it's your opinion but the time and headache you talk about is serious money when talking drill presses... I can drill over 5 inches on a 130 dollar cheapo drill press. To buy a floor model that would do that wouldn't even compare to the plywood fixture I built to drill that far...

Reactions: Like 1


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## Clay3063 (May 10, 2018)

gman2431 said:


> I know it's your opinion but the time and headache you talk about is serious money when talking drill presses... I can drill over 5 inches on a 130 dollar cheapo drill press. To buy a floor model that would do that wouldn't even compare to the plywood fixture I built to drill that far...


I'd like to see that plywood fixture. I have a floor model drill press back in Texas. I bought Ryobi table top some time back that I gave to my oldest daughter to use for her craft stuff and it has a longer travel than this Porter Cable does. If I had known then what I know now, I'd of gotten another Ryobi but it was 20 bucks more than this one and right now, we're pinching pennies till they scream. LOL.


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## Schroedc (May 10, 2018)

Sorry about that, I guess I was thinking about how many blanks I've drilled in the past, I probably drilled a lot more holes so for me it would have driven me nuts. A jig or a dedicated drilling setup would work just fine if you've got the time and are ok with that. I've found one of the best things for drilling deeper blanks is a set of long jaws on a chuck and to use the lathe. I just prefer to have a tool that will do what I want it to without having to come up with an add on or outside the box solution

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 3


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## rdabpenman (May 11, 2018)

I went to a dedicated blank drill chuck.

Les

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1 | Informative 1


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## rocky1 (May 13, 2018)

Buy a longer drill bit!!





I went the same route as Les did, has it's issues, (_doesn't like fat blanks, doesn't necessarily like unsquare blanks, little lathe I have it on doesn't have enough travel so I have to move the tail stock up a time or two_), but length of travel isn't an issue. It'll drill as deep as your bit, you just have to advance the tailstock.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Spinartist (May 13, 2018)

rocky1 said:


> Buy a longer drill bit!!
> 
> 
> 
> ...




After I drill a pen blank on lathe about 3/4" deep using the tailstock quill, I hold the Jacobs chuck in my left hand & push the whole tailstock into the blank using my body to drill deeper & pull it back out to clear the shavings & repeat till I'm all the way through the blank. Saves a lots of time instead of cranking the quill in & out.
I drill probly 99 % of pen blanks this way

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1 | Informative 1


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## rocky1 (May 13, 2018)

I often do that as well Lee, depends on the blank and pen I'm turning. That method although much quicker and easier, is a little less accurate than cranking the quill in and out, and doing everything nicely on my little Harbor Freight lathe, and the tailstock being tighter, it's more accurate than my Grizzly.


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## Sprung (May 13, 2018)

I spent my first two+ years of making pen doing all my drilling on a Chiwanese 8" drill press with 2" of travel. I would drill as far as I could, then slide boards under the pen blank drilling vise. It worked - I did probably 200 pens that way.

However, once I upgraded that a drill press with more travel - a little over 3" - I wished I had had it sooner and it cut the amount of time I spent drilling blanks out by well more than half - which was especially nice those times I was drilling 25 or 40 blanks at a time. And, if that's not enough, I now have a second drill press and that one has 4" of travel - and oh, is that nice!

For personal use, yeah, you can definitely get away with 2" of travel. I mean, I did it just fine. And there's still a few pens with longer barrels that even on a 4" drill press you'll be either sliding boards under the drilling vise or moving the table up. But if you're going to be setting this up for others to make plenty of use of as well, I'd probably get one with more travel so it's a more user friendly setup for the variety of people that will be using it. I think it's too bad that Ryobi discontinued their larger benchtop drill press - I really like mine that I picked up second hand and the only model they currently offer only has 2" of quill travel.

I'll also add that I've never seen anyone post about how they had less quill travel on their drill press. But I've seen countless posts on various forums from people who wished they had more.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## Clay3063 (May 14, 2018)

OK gentlemen, Thank you all for your timely comments and suggestions. I've got a floor model drill press that I have had for years... I just don't have it here. And until we get into a better situation, this is what we're stuck with. LOL. Portable workshop, mounted on a skid that slides in and out of the bed of my truck. We bought a used camper shell to mount on the truck to keep things dry and away from sticky fingers. It works. But I can affirm, just barely. And without further ado, here is the redneck version of the portable woodshop on wheels in the trailerhood in the mountains:

Reactions: Like 5


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