How to make a long pencil trough in a piece of hardwood?

[Nick]

Perhaps I'm being daft but I have yet to come up with a solution.

I want to fashion a pencil trough in the centre of a piece of beech. Dimensions of the trough to be 16 x 1.5 x 0.5 ins. Needs to be round in section with radiused ends. Finished item will be 21x4x1.5

I don't have a router or spindle moulder, not sure that these would help anyway. Something like this:

but larger. The one in the image is 4 x 5/16. Hopefully more neatly done.

My best solution so far is to drill out most of the waste and then whittle away with gouge(s). Then abrasives with a shaped sanding block. I fear this is not the right approach and that I am overlooking something simple. I have seen similar before but never wondered how they were made.

Ping! Possible light bulb moment. Angle grinder with arbortech (or similar) cutter. Great deal of care required to avoid wrecking the job. I've seen or used an arbortech cutter. Like most here, I have an angle grinder. Another possibility would be to cut the length out of the board and skew cut it to radius. Then glue the ends back on. Then shape the ends with gouges, abrasives etc. I don't like skew cutting and I dont have any gouges. These can be overcome.

Any constructive thoughts please? Nick

[Chris Hogg]

A really sharp gouge, a mallet and take it slowly. Don't try to gouge out too much at a time. Repeat passes. You may not even need a mallet

- use the heel of your hand to hit the gouge. Finish off with sandpaper. Did I say the gouge must be really sharp, like all woodworking tools, otherwise you just mess it up.

[tabbypurr]

Talk about making life hard. Get a router! It can be done with a smaller bit if you can accept a part flat part radiussed bottom. Done in minutes.

NT

[Hilo Black]

A router would work fine.

You wouldn?t get the tapering up to nothing at the ends with a router easily tho.

With a router normally.

A router would do a much better job. Not cheap for just that tho.

Use a router, bought, borrowed or hired.

[dennis]

Use a mallet, you can damage your hand if you keep hitting the gouge handle.

[John Rumm]

The obvious one would be to buy or borrow a router and suitable ball end cutter.

However if you want a hand tool approach then, for a one off job you could make yourself a "scratch stock" - basically a bit of metal with the right shape ground/filed into it, that can be mounted in a L shaped block of wood to guide it along the edge of the wood you shaping. You scrape ever deeper with multiple passes.

Nice example of how to make and use one:

A posher option would be a number 45, 50, or 55 plow / combination plane. They can often be had for not much on ebay.

[harry]

Angle grinder if you have one.

[F Murtz]

If you make some sort of guide jig you can use a drill with a ball burr or router cutter

[stuart noble]

These might help?

[tabbypurr]

I'd love to see you use a router bit in a drill.

[GB]

Not relevant to what you want to do, but I have a pen holder which consists of a block of wood with holes drilled in it vertically. Nicely varnished, and with a little strip of green felt on the base.

[polygonum]

If you had stopped half-way through your subject, this might have been an answer:

[F Murtz]

Have done, no problem. Where do you see a problem? It all depends on the setup. I regularly use things like this in a mill drill and a bench drill and if you set up your hand drill in a similar fashion there is no problem. It will not work as well as a router but it is only a speed problem.

[tabbypurr]

There's the point, you'd need the control of a bench mounted drill. 99% of routerless people only have a handheld drill.

NT

[fred]

ONLY a speed problem ? What speed does your hand drill achieve 1300rpm. Mos t drill presses only get to about 2500rpm.may Most routers run at over 10,

000 rpm and higher speeds would be required with smaller bits. 18000 and ov er would be ideal in the majority of cases.

I'd love to see the finish you get with a hand drill, and excessive sideway s force if using a bench drill will do it no good at all.

If the o.p. cares to rent/borrow a router he would only need two small ramp s at either end of the cut to gradually rise the bit off the surface. This will give him the end finish he desires.

[tabbypurr]

ost drill presses only get to about 2500rpm.may Most routers run at over 1

0,000 rpm and higher speeds would be required with smaller bits. 18000 and over would be ideal in the majority of cases.

ays force if using a bench drill will do it no good at all.

mps at either end of the cut to gradually rise the bit off the surface. Thi s will give him the end finish he desires.

I've never tried a router bit at low speed, but can't help thinking the iss ues are obvious. I did try an angle grinder disc once in a drill, due to th e grinder failing on a job and not being able to go get another. It was 100 % useless, no progress whatever.

NT

[RayL12]

Or, if you fancy a bit of character, drop a hot rod in place and burn your way down?

...Ray.

[Brian Reay]

You can buy a bit for a drill which is like a rounded wood rasp, with a rounded end. You would need either a steady hand or some kind of jig and, while a normal electric drill isn't designed for sideways pressure on the bearings, for a one off, you should be OK. I think they are sold under the Wolf brand, probably others.

[The Natural Philosopher]

wood carvers gouges, coffee, and a day.

[Steve Walker]

Bodge together a jig to hold and guide the drill from offcuts of wood and just buy the a cheap router bit to put in the drill.

SteveW