Drilling long pen tubes

[yorkie]

I recently found a pen kit I like but it's one 5 inch long tube. I bought a spiral fluted drill bit which helps a lot but it's proving quite difficult to drill a straight hole that long without a lot of drift and getting enough throw on the drill press to go all the way through in one pass.

Your thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot.

 

[Russianwolf]

best bet is swapping to drilling on the lathe.

 

[bitshird]

Turn your blank round for it's full length then use just about any lathe chuck or collet system, cut the blank about a 1/2 inch longer than needed and drill on your lathe, I do this with the Long Click kits and it works great.

 

[Rifleman1776]

I have to disagree with the advice to first turn to round.
If you do that and the drill wanders from center, you may end up with too little wood to turn down.
Chuck up on the lathe and drill. Make the blank a bit too long and stop before the end then cut to exact length.