Drilling question

hazmat · Post by **hazmat** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 9:10 am

This has been brought up before and I understand the reason for it, just need some advice on how to approach it before I ruin a fine piece of wood.

I have my block squared, lined and have drilled the mortise. Because of the shape of the shank, the mortise is at a different angle than the draft hole will be. I'm going to have to groove the mortise in order to drill my draft hole at the proper angle. How do I put that groove in the mortise? I'm assuming a round file of the proper diameter should do it. I can't just run my drill bit into it or the edge of the mortise will cause it to deflect and I'll end up all off. Suggestions?

Thanks!!

Matt

ArtGuy · Post by **ArtGuy** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 9:32 am

Just bring the drill bit up slowly to the end of the mortise and let it create the groove. I usually move it in and out until the bit it settled. Then I continue to drill the airway as normal. You end up with a scallop at the end of the mortise however that is not uncommon.

hazmat · Post by **hazmat** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 10:19 am

I'm drilling with a drill press. Is there anything I should watch out for specifically when I try this? I'm starting off the draft hole with the shortest 5/32 bit I have to keep it from running out on me and I assume that will help a good bit in allowing the groove to sort of work itself out.

When I laid this pipe out I was going to conciously avoid having the mortise/draft hole at two different angles, but I just couldn't get the bend in the shank that I wanted. In a "screw it" moment I did it anyway, but after drilling my mortise I realized the only screwing I did was to myself, as I had to stop for the evening. I really didn't want to jimmy this thing up.

Thanks!

LexKY_Pipe · Post by **LexKY_Pipe** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 12:31 pm

I often drill the draught hole first. Then you can decide how large of a mortise hole to drill to eliminate the groove from showing at all.

hazmat · Post by **hazmat** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 1:33 pm

@Craig

I normally do that, too. This is the first time I've drilled mortise first. The only reason I switched is because I have a terrible problem with the draft hole not being centered in the bottom of the mortise. I figured a change in procedure might keep this from becoming such a problem. I suppose I could always re-drill the mortise at a bit larger diameter, though.

LexKY_Pipe · Post by **LexKY_Pipe** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 1:53 pm

On deeply curved shanks, the draft hole centering becomes much harder if not impossible. I just finished an Oom Paul and the draft hole is obviously high in the mortise. But I've examined other Oom Pauls and they have this same characteristic. I think the small groove is pretty common as well. At times it's hard to avoid.

hazmat · Post by **hazmat** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 1:59 pm

The shank on this isn't very deeply bent. It gets just steep enough, though, as you reach the shank/stem junction that I can't get around it. Unfortunately, removing that steep part takes away from the line I want along the bottom of the pipe. :shrugs: I'll make it work one way or the other but next time I do this, I may go to 7/16ths instead of 5/16ths for my mortise.