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I'm having some difficulty getting my stem stock lined up perpendicular to get a straight tenon using a drill press. Anyone have any suggestions/advice? I tried cutting a "V" into a peice of 2x4 with my bandsaw but it seems to be a bit off. Is there a more precise tool that could do the same job. I thought about getting a pen blank vise but thought that would be overkill. Any simpler solutions? Turning my own tenons doesn't seem to be an issue since it tends to square itself. I'm having the problem drilling for a delrin tenon.

It's been a while since I used a drill press for this, but I found reasonable success by finding the center of the end of the drill stock, then lining up the stock in my drill press vice by sighting it along side of a long drill bit chucked into the drill press. Sight along both the front and one side of your set up. Then once that was as close as I could get it I would clamp it down to center with the drill. Then change the drill out for a Forstner bit, and face the end of the stock with the forstner bit, then without changing anything but the drill, drill for the Delrin. That way, even if the stock was slightly off, the face of the stock and Delrin would be in good relationship to one another and present a very reasonable fit to the face of the shank.

I can't even start to tell you how nice it is to have a lathe, but it is possible to do very decent work until you can manage that.

If you intend to drill on the press for a good while, the investment in the pen blank vise might be the solution for you. It will certainly help you keep your sanity.

Drilling stems and stem blanks on a drill press was the driving force in me getting a wood lathe. It's possible to get the face and tenon perfectly in line, but more often than not, the stem itself was off by a degree or two - just enough to make it unsettling to look at. Then I had to go back and fix it by bending the stem this and way and that - even straight pipes.

It can be done, but I think a pen vise (or something similar), and ensuring that your drill press's table is perpendicular to the spindle, is key to doing it well.

Scott, that process sounds like it should work for me. I'll give it a try. If I can avoid purchasing a pen blank vise that money can be better spent towards a nice lathe in the future. The "boss" has temporarily suspended my spending allowance for awhile. Thanks for the tips fellas.