Thread: Ebony

If its been jointed well Dallas then the next probability is its the heat from the drilling that has done that to your blank. Heat is a great way of releasing most/ all glue joints.
Maybe clear the drill bit every few mm and use compressed air to blow off dust and cool the drill bit .

Auscab is on the money imo. CA probably isn't a good choice of glue either. Ebony, being dense, can be oily, with indiscernible pores tests many woodworkers attempting to glue it to itself or other woods. Best advice is to glue freshly planed surfaces, do not sand, at least not on a disk or belt sander.

Ebony generates a lot of heat when being drilled, and lots more if the drill bit isn't sharp. When it gets hot it tends to end check badly as well. CA glue joints don't like heat either, and being a brittle glue will not accept wood movement well at all.

I did an ebony pepper mill using a crush grind mechanism for Woodchopper on the forums. Talk about a pretty nerve-wracking experience using large Forstner bits in genuine ebony. I took it very steady drilling only 4 or 5 mm at a time then let both the blank and Forstner bit cool. Laborious but well worth the extra effort.

Not often one gets to play with an ebony blank big enough for a crush grind pepper mill.

Thanks guys. I got another 4 pieces off the guy today and again planed them flat and square. I rubbed them on my sandpaper board that I use to flatten my boxes and lids after separating them just to make sure the faces were flat. Getting them dead straight with a plane on such a short length was giving me a bit of grief and the board worked well. I have glued this lot up using an epoxy and I will have another go at drilling them tomorrow and ensure I don't introduce much heat. I will report back on how it turns out.

It's probably worthwhile cleaning the joining faces with acetone immediately before applying epoxy. Just allow enough time for the acetone to evaporate, then apply the glue and clamp - not too tight or you'll have a dry joint.

Well I had success. I ended up going back to the original blanks as all the glue lines cracked as I was playing around with the assembly, so that gave me a chance to clean them up back to fresh wood. I used the epoxy on all the faces and left for 24 hours to cure properly. Because I already had a sort of hole down the middle (a bit out of shape by now) I didn't need to remove much material to get the hole to the right size and round. It turned really well and I gave it a finish of CA so that should prevent any chance of movement down the track. Below is the finished pen and the person requesting it is very happy.

Ebony.jpg

Originally Posted by Treecycle

Well I had success.

Ebony.jpg

Ver nice! What is the kit?

It's a Gallant kit. First time I've used one and found it to be quite a good kit with plenty of meat left on the wooden blank when complete.

Originally Posted by Treecycle

It's a Gallant kit. First time I've used one and found it to be quite a good kit with plenty of meat left on the wooden blank when complete.

I thought so from the clip. So many kit variations available from the USA though.