Bob Cleek

Dremel and Proxxon make 3 jaws drill chuck. Dremel started to sell it about 20 years ago.
I use both with success.
I must be very careful to insert a #80 drill bit, it is very easy easy to insert it out of center.
The best way I found to insert it is to close the jaws as much as possible before inserting the drill bit.
I always test run the drill bit before drilling and if the drill bit has a run out, I recenter it and it always fix the problem.

If I am drilling holes smaller than #75, I want that hole to be the correct diameter and with a crisp outline.  Most of the smaller drill bits placed in a Dremel with a micro chuck or Proxxon have some "shimmy", resulting in oversized holes.  For this reason, I almost exclusively use resharpened carbide drill bits for the smaller sizes.  I have been using Drill Bit City https://drillcity.stores.yahoo.net/ for years.  They are located in the Chicago area.

Quite true! If Jim Byrnes made drawplates with a range of larger diameters, I'd buy them in a hot minute. (Hint... Hint... Hint!)
 
The Byrnes drawplate is a great tool and well worth the price, but it covers a range of very, very small holes. I haven't used mine as much as my larger drawplates because I don't have much call for trunnels and pegs the diameter of a human hair!  You'll need a larger-holed drawplate to get down to the diameter where the Byrnes drawplate even begins. The drill gauges are a good option for the larger diameters and double as... well, drill gauges. 
 
 
 
The short answer is "as little as possible." The less of a "bite" you take on each draw, the less resistance to the pulling and therefore the less breakage and problems holding on to the wood you are pulling through it. A drawplate for metal wire compresses and draws (stretches) the wire (making it longer, actually,) which is why metal wire drawplates have conical sides with a "big hole" side and a "small hole" side. Drawplates for wood scrape wood from the sides of the wood as it passes over the sharp edge of the parallel sides of the holes. This is a big difference between the two. You can flatten the back "small hole" side of a metal wire drawplate and, putting the wood in from the back "small hole" side, use them to fashion wooden dowels, but their conical sides promote breakage of the wood when the wood "wobbles" in the conical hole when being pulled through. 
 
(Note that there is also such a thing as a wooden drawplate which is used by jewelers to size and flatten metal chain links. Wire is wound round a mandrel and the links cut with a jeweler's saw parallel to the mandrel. The resulting round links are slid off the mandrel and linked and soldered individually. The chain is then pulled through the holes in the wooden chain gauge to flatten them into ovals of uniform size. These are great for making chain, but no good for anything else.)
 
The problem is, I don't know of anybody who makes drawplates for wood in a hole diameter range larger than the Byrnes drawplate. Sharpening the back of a drill gauge is apparently the only option. Making your own is possible, but, as said, the cost of the high quality small sized drill bits necessary to drill the required small sized holes is going to set one back far more than the cost of a couple of good drill gauges and a Byrnes drawplate, assuming, even that one can get the job done without breaking a lot of expensive tiny drill bits.

Yes, and I'm not familiar with them, but I'm not so sure about a Chinese outfit on AliExpress that sells "Foredom" handpieces for twenty bucks!
 
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32755399438.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000013.7.30471325557rM5&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreThisSeller&scm=1007.13339.169870.0&scm_id=1007.13339.169870.0&scm-url=1007.13339.169870.0&pvid=c5f94c99-482c-4a0b-8734-a74beed2373a&_t=gps-id:pcDetailBottomMoreThisSeller,scm-url:1007.13339.169870.0,pvid:c5f94c99-482c-4a0b-8734-a74beed2373a,tpp_buckets:668%230%23131923%2323_668%23888%233325%2316_668%232846%238111%231996_668%232717%237560%23224_668%231000022185%231000066059%230_668%233468%2315616%23781

Yes, "Horror Fright" and others sell an Asian-made knockoff of the original Foredom flex-shaft rotary power tool, which has been around forever. The "Foredom tool" is the "gold standard" for flex-shaft tools used by dental labs, carvers, and jewelers. The Foredom tool comes with a variety of stands and handpieces, just like dental drills. There are also many aftermarket attachments, such as the Vanda-Lay Industries drill press and mill, which are powered by either a Dremel motor or the Foredom handpiece. StewMac recently came out with a plunge router accessory as well! The Foredom's big advantages, aside from the quality of the construction and the breadth of handpieces and bits and burrs, is its superior power and the lightness and flexibility of the flexible drive shaft and handpieces which make them very easy to control, much like a pencil. They are quiet, too.
 
See: https://www.foredom.net/product-category/flex-shaft-tools/
 
 
 

 
 

Assuming that is true, how much run out is there when you're holding it in your hand while it's running?   

It may just be me, but I long ago gave up trying to use 60-80 size bits in any motorized hand-held drill motor, either a Dremel type or a Foredom handpiece. The slightest wobble of the hand usually results in a broken bit. I carefully use a pin vise for drilling by hand with such small bits. For motorized drilling, a good, rigid drill press with no run out is needed. 

Yes, and I'm not familiar with them, but I'm not so sure about a Chinese outfit on AliExpress that sells "Foredom" handpieces for twenty bucks!
 
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32755399438.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000013.7.30471325557rM5&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreThisSeller&scm=1007.13339.169870.0&scm_id=1007.13339.169870.0&scm-url=1007.13339.169870.0&pvid=c5f94c99-482c-4a0b-8734-a74beed2373a&_t=gps-id:pcDetailBottomMoreThisSeller,scm-url:1007.13339.169870.0,pvid:c5f94c99-482c-4a0b-8734-a74beed2373a,tpp_buckets:668%230%23131923%2323_668%23888%233325%2316_668%232846%238111%231996_668%232717%237560%23224_668%231000022185%231000066059%230_668%233468%2315616%23781

Yes, "Horror Fright" and others sell an Asian-made knockoff of the original Foredom flex-shaft rotary power tool, which has been around forever. The "Foredom tool" is the "gold standard" for flex-shaft tools used by dental labs, carvers, and jewelers. The Foredom tool comes with a variety of stands and handpieces, just like dental drills. There are also many aftermarket attachments, such as the Vanda-Lay Industries drill press and mill, which are powered by either a Dremel motor or the Foredom handpiece. StewMac recently came out with a plunge router accessory as well! The Foredom's big advantages, aside from the quality of the construction and the breadth of handpieces and bits and burrs, is its superior power and the lightness and flexibility of the flexible drive shaft and handpieces which make them very easy to control, much like a pencil. They are quiet, too.
 
See: https://www.foredom.net/product-category/flex-shaft-tools/
 
 
 

 
 

Yes, "Horror Fright" and others sell an Asian-made knockoff of the original Foredom flex-shaft rotary power tool, which has been around forever. The "Foredom tool" is the "gold standard" for flex-shaft tools used by dental labs, carvers, and jewelers. The Foredom tool comes with a variety of stands and handpieces, just like dental drills. There are also many aftermarket attachments, such as the Vanda-Lay Industries drill press and mill, which are powered by either a Dremel motor or the Foredom handpiece. StewMac recently came out with a plunge router accessory as well! The Foredom's big advantages, aside from the quality of the construction and the breadth of handpieces and bits and burrs, is its superior power and the lightness and flexibility of the flexible drive shaft and handpieces which make them very easy to control, much like a pencil. They are quiet, too.
 
See: https://www.foredom.net/product-category/flex-shaft-tools/
 
 
 

 
 

Assuming that is true, how much run out is there when you're holding it in your hand while it's running?   

Years ago, I used my Dad's obsolete belt-driven (motorized with a foot controller) dental drill to make holes for putting toothpicks in model ship planking to resemble the ends of treenails.  My brother has that now, so I found a cool alternative sold at Harbor Freight (a national chain?), made by 'Chicago Tool'  (Taiwanese, no doubt) that has a motor that hangs from a hook put into any vertical surface - and there is a flexible shaft going from the motor to a metal cylinder (an oversized pencil holder) with a chuck in the end.  There is a sensitive foot control and anything a Dremel will accept it will accept.  The Dremel was always too fast and touchy to control.  I really like the new tool and have used it for a number of projects - there is no noticeable run-out.

With the caveat that I've never done this, I'll suggest that the Cricut (pronounced "cricket") home CNC cutting machine is designed to solve the problem of small scale lettering transfers for modeling purposes, among others. (It shows a lot of promise for photo-etch quality cutouts from card stock, too.) My daughter has one and loves it. It seems to be "a girl thing" as their marketing is directed to crafty "soccer moms," and I haven't seen the Cricut system mentioned in this forum at all as yet. I does seem to be becoming quite popular and the results it produces are excellent. While there is a plethora of "clip art" images for use with the machine, one can also generate their own with any computer graphics program or word processing font. I'd be interested to know if any modelers are using it and how they like it. Once the pandemic gets over, I plan to fool around with her Cricut and see what applications for modeling I can come up with for it.
 
 
 
 
 

Quite true! If Jim Byrnes made drawplates with a range of larger diameters, I'd buy them in a hot minute. (Hint... Hint... Hint!)
 
The Byrnes drawplate is a great tool and well worth the price, but it covers a range of very, very small holes. I haven't used mine as much as my larger drawplates because I don't have much call for trunnels and pegs the diameter of a human hair!  You'll need a larger-holed drawplate to get down to the diameter where the Byrnes drawplate even begins. The drill gauges are a good option for the larger diameters and double as... well, drill gauges. 
 
 
 
The short answer is "as little as possible." The less of a "bite" you take on each draw, the less resistance to the pulling and therefore the less breakage and problems holding on to the wood you are pulling through it. A drawplate for metal wire compresses and draws (stretches) the wire (making it longer, actually,) which is why metal wire drawplates have conical sides with a "big hole" side and a "small hole" side. Drawplates for wood scrape wood from the sides of the wood as it passes over the sharp edge of the parallel sides of the holes. This is a big difference between the two. You can flatten the back "small hole" side of a metal wire drawplate and, putting the wood in from the back "small hole" side, use them to fashion wooden dowels, but their conical sides promote breakage of the wood when the wood "wobbles" in the conical hole when being pulled through. 
 
(Note that there is also such a thing as a wooden drawplate which is used by jewelers to size and flatten metal chain links. Wire is wound round a mandrel and the links cut with a jeweler's saw parallel to the mandrel. The resulting round links are slid off the mandrel and linked and soldered individually. The chain is then pulled through the holes in the wooden chain gauge to flatten them into ovals of uniform size. These are great for making chain, but no good for anything else.)
 
The problem is, I don't know of anybody who makes drawplates for wood in a hole diameter range larger than the Byrnes drawplate. Sharpening the back of a drill gauge is apparently the only option. Making your own is possible, but, as said, the cost of the high quality small sized drill bits necessary to drill the required small sized holes is going to set one back far more than the cost of a couple of good drill gauges and a Byrnes drawplate, assuming, even that one can get the job done without breaking a lot of expensive tiny drill bits.

It may just be me, but I long ago gave up trying to use 60-80 size bits in any motorized hand-held drill motor, either a Dremel type or a Foredom handpiece. The slightest wobble of the hand usually results in a broken bit. I carefully use a pin vise for drilling by hand with such small bits. For motorized drilling, a good, rigid drill press with no run out is needed. 

It may just be me, but I long ago gave up trying to use 60-80 size bits in any motorized hand-held drill motor, either a Dremel type or a Foredom handpiece. The slightest wobble of the hand usually results in a broken bit. I carefully use a pin vise for drilling by hand with such small bits. For motorized drilling, a good, rigid drill press with no run out is needed. 

Assuming that is true, how much run out is there when you're holding it in your hand while it's running?   

It may just be me, but I long ago gave up trying to use 60-80 size bits in any motorized hand-held drill motor, either a Dremel type or a Foredom handpiece. The slightest wobble of the hand usually results in a broken bit. I carefully use a pin vise for drilling by hand with such small bits. For motorized drilling, a good, rigid drill press with no run out is needed. 

Just setting up at beginning?
 
Is a lot to spend on a machine with limited application in POF.
The up/down action wants to move my work.
 
Instead, consider:
a 14" bandsaw
with an 1/8" blade and a Carter Stablizer - tight cuts can be scrolled
It is true that the blades have more set, so there is more work for
a drum/spindle sander to do ( tilting table here is mostly useless)
to finish to the line.
as well as a good quality disc sander.
 
If you get a bandsaw with a 2 HP motor, you have saw mill / resaw
resources that can save wood costs   You will need a thickness sander though.
It is probably more work than it is worth to try to adapt a spindle sander to
replicate a thickness sander = a fence problem.
 
A first rate like Victory will require a model scale forest at 1:64 / 1:48
 

Quite true! If Jim Byrnes made drawplates with a range of larger diameters, I'd buy them in a hot minute. (Hint... Hint... Hint!)
 
The Byrnes drawplate is a great tool and well worth the price, but it covers a range of very, very small holes. I haven't used mine as much as my larger drawplates because I don't have much call for trunnels and pegs the diameter of a human hair!  You'll need a larger-holed drawplate to get down to the diameter where the Byrnes drawplate even begins. The drill gauges are a good option for the larger diameters and double as... well, drill gauges. 
 
 
 
The short answer is "as little as possible." The less of a "bite" you take on each draw, the less resistance to the pulling and therefore the less breakage and problems holding on to the wood you are pulling through it. A drawplate for metal wire compresses and draws (stretches) the wire (making it longer, actually,) which is why metal wire drawplates have conical sides with a "big hole" side and a "small hole" side. Drawplates for wood scrape wood from the sides of the wood as it passes over the sharp edge of the parallel sides of the holes. This is a big difference between the two. You can flatten the back "small hole" side of a metal wire drawplate and, putting the wood in from the back "small hole" side, use them to fashion wooden dowels, but their conical sides promote breakage of the wood when the wood "wobbles" in the conical hole when being pulled through. 
 
(Note that there is also such a thing as a wooden drawplate which is used by jewelers to size and flatten metal chain links. Wire is wound round a mandrel and the links cut with a jeweler's saw parallel to the mandrel. The resulting round links are slid off the mandrel and linked and soldered individually. The chain is then pulled through the holes in the wooden chain gauge to flatten them into ovals of uniform size. These are great for making chain, but no good for anything else.)
 
The problem is, I don't know of anybody who makes drawplates for wood in a hole diameter range larger than the Byrnes drawplate. Sharpening the back of a drill gauge is apparently the only option. Making your own is possible, but, as said, the cost of the high quality small sized drill bits necessary to drill the required small sized holes is going to set one back far more than the cost of a couple of good drill gauges and a Byrnes drawplate, assuming, even that one can get the job done without breaking a lot of expensive tiny drill bits.

Proxon claim that their rotary tools have no run out, that their collets are very high quality and their chuck has minimal run out. Apparently can grab drills from 0.3 mm.
I plan to buy it in the next financial month.

It may just be me, but I long ago gave up trying to use 60-80 size bits in any motorized hand-held drill motor, either a Dremel type or a Foredom handpiece. The slightest wobble of the hand usually results in a broken bit. I carefully use a pin vise for drilling by hand with such small bits. For motorized drilling, a good, rigid drill press with no run out is needed. 

I think:
This will cost more in time and tool wear than any perceived savings from DIY.
The Byrnes is on balance economical.
You can also use two tools that you will otherwise need to have anyway:

 
General Tool #15 1-60 drill gauge.
 

 
General Tool #13  61-80 drill gauge.
Both are SS and can be rubbed on a stone to renew the edge. 
Drill bits go astray and the gauge is needed to identify the size. 
 
If the alternative ready made option is an actual jewelers draw plate - a bad choice - expensive and made for actually drawing wire.  The sizes do not match wire gauge sizes.  They must be used from the wrong side, the taper does not help in grasping the bamboo and using a stone on the small size will enlarge the holes because of the taper (although that would take several lifetimes of rubbing). 
 
In my experience:
There are a blue million species of bamboo - which one is used in any particular bag of bamboo skewers no way to know.
Some are soft and draw easily, but are fragile.  Some are hard and fight being pealed into ever smaller diameters.
The interval between each drill number is often too wide.  Going back thru the same hole more than once but at an ever increasing angle might keep a stick from freezing up in the hole and being the devil to push out.  The harder species are worse at this.
It is not easy to get a grip on the stick.  It is difficult not to crush the tip too much to even get back thru a second pass without shaving a new point.  It is about an every pass step - long skewers help make it provide enough final length - after a tedious, frustrating, and time consuming process.
I have yet to find an ideal gripper.  I have the gripper used to pull wire - scissor action - coarse teeth - wants to crush - even with a piece of sandpaper between the surface and the stick.
I bought parallel grip pliers to try and something else featured here that is waiting for testing.  Something with a groove for the stick may reduce crushing.
 
A bag of plastic test tubes and a test tube stand is a way to store the variety of finished trunnels sorted per diameter.  Some sticks are not going to let you draw them down as small as you want.  They are still useful.
 
 

I would take a look at the Byrne's draw plate, it's a good price for the quality of the product.  Put it this way, my son has his own machine shop with full CNC machine capabilities and I still bought one from Jim.  It was just not worth it to make my own.  The reason for this I would only make only one and I am sure he makes them in batches which is far more economical.  Also his is nicely hardened and should stay sharp for a long time
 
There lots of stuff that may be cheaper and easier to make yourself than try to find commercially, this I just don't think is one of them.
Don F

It may just be me, but I long ago gave up trying to use 60-80 size bits in any motorized hand-held drill motor, either a Dremel type or a Foredom handpiece. The slightest wobble of the hand usually results in a broken bit. I carefully use a pin vise for drilling by hand with such small bits. For motorized drilling, a good, rigid drill press with no run out is needed.