This video tries to show a somewhat safer (safest is having a vise in your drill press) way to drill your work pieces without the use of a specialty vise.
There is no special setup involved. Take a run of the mill quick clamp. Clamp your piece in it. It needs to be large enough that the bar will be able to rest up against the left side of the drill press.
Really, the left side. The bit will be spinning clockwise and the bar will prevent it from doing so. If you place the bar on the right side, it will catch and become VERY dangerous as it spins 360 degrees to the left side where you should have put it the first time.
Have I mentioned that you should put it on the left side of the drill press?
Moving on. Drill your work piece slowly. I’m using a 1.5″ forsner bit in the video to show how well this works.
A few times you can actually hear the drill press stall out. This is because it caught the work piece but was unable to turn it. Without the clamp, this would have spun and probably cut your hands up pretty bad.
This method works on pen blanks quite well. We all know how those acrylic blanks like to catch right at the end.
If you are drilling through your work piece, be sure to have a waste block underneath to minimize blow out.
Sorry for the long description.
Keep your hands safe!
Post time: Jun-16-2017