homemade pen press

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Do you have a drill press? Mine consists of a piece of pine with a 6mm hole and a hardwood dowel with a tenon cut into it to grab with the drill chuck.
 
Does anyone have some planes that can be sent to me on how to make a good pen press thank you. :usflag:
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2 MT2 stub arbours with some delrin double sided tape.
 

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I have one simular to Mack C. I use my lathe, I turned a piece of scrap sugar maple to fin in my chuck and the attachec a piece of oak to a #2 MT for the tail stock. I press in using the tail screw. I can't see spending money for something I have already.
 
Pen press by Jake

I copied this pen press that JakeAB posted ( thanks Jake !! ) made from a clamp from HF and some scrap plywood for a base and Jake, it does work just fine !! :biggrin:

His post :

While wandering down the aisles of my local HF, something caught my eye. $7.20 later, here's what I came up with:





1. It's screw-type. Since the screw is 8-TPI, one turn is 1/8", a quarter turn is 1/32" (more or less--I wouldn't bank on the absolute accuracy of HF tools)

2. The cradle supports the pen and keeps things straight. If you need more support, you can add a second cradle, or substitute one that's longer.

3. It's portable, but can easily be clamped to a bench.

4. If I made it, anyone can.

5. Cost is $8.99 for the clamp ($7.20 with a 20% off coupon), some scrap wood and a little time.

Okay, remember I'm new at this. No doubt I'll get a hundred responses from people who have done this before and can tell me why it won't work. But hey, it works for me. If it inspires or amuses anyone else, my work here is done.
 
Mine is similar to mson's except it has blue clamps...lol

The only difference is I have mine clamped in my bench vise but after seeing this one I will put it on a base.
 
While it's not homemade, I thought I'd toss this one in the ring smply because it is so versitile and works GREAT as a pen vise.
Swiss made Zyliss portable vise. | eBay

I used to have one of the commercially available pen presses and when I picked up one of these, I switched over and sold the other pen vise. Simply put, it works great. Easy to control and quickly clamps securly wherever you want it. I'd never pay full price for one of these but you can get them for $20-$30 bucks on ebay. That way, you can spend your time making pens instead of a homemade pen vise. Just a thought...

Jim Smith
 
Our is from an old small benchtop drill press.
 

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