Thread: Ouch!

Hello Matt, take care, use a leather glove if you must do it that way ,However very pleasing to hear the blank is ok!!!! Amos

Matt, I really don't recommend getting your blanks that hot. And not just 'cos it burns your fingers.

Even though you mightn't see visible signs of charring or burning, the odds are that you've overheated the wood and caused what I call "micro-fractures" around the bore. Some woods are more prone to this than others, acrylics are highly susceptible.

Considering that with a pen you turn most of it away except for the piece around the hole, well... if I were you I'd make sure you do a good job of gluing the tube in, 'cos otherwise you've doubled (or worse) the chances of the blank shattering when nearly finished.

Hope it turns fine for you though, and don't forget to post pix!

I try to be careful and not overheat them but this one got away from me, I don't usually drill them on the lathe. It was alright until that last bit, must have been all the friction from having the bit almost all the way through. This was a piece of maple, hopefully it takes heat better than some of the harder denser woods do. I was extra careful to to rough up the inside of the blank and I put extra deep scratching on the tube, hopefully it holds, its a nice piece of birdseye maple. Naturally if everything goes well I'll post pics, its going on a gold Wall Street II.

Cheers!

As Skew said Matt even with normal drilling conditions the heat can cause 'micro-fractures'. For this reason I always line the inside of my timber blanks with thin CA whether I think it is needed or not. The thin CA will wick into any of the fine cracks and it gives a good gluing surface for the roughed up tube to adhere to.
Darren

I'd use the lowest speed available for that size, especially in end grain. Also, withdraw the bit completely and often for cleanout; you may have been burnishing the inside of the hole with the cuttings - that gets hot in a hurry. My rule of thumb: If it's too hot for me, it's too hot for the wood.

Joe

Well all done. No pics yet though, I'll try to get those up later either tonight or in the morn.

I'd never turned a Wall Street II before, dang that wood gets thin. It went well except for one catch that I though did me in but I was lucky to have just enough wood left to work it out. It doesn't look as good as I had hoped it would. It's a piece from the same birdseye maple bit I made those Atlases out of before but it doesn't seem to look the same. Maybe I need to drag out the Atlases and compare. It just seems like its a bit darker and the birdeyes don't seem to have as much luster. Meh. These things happen. Could be the wood, could have been the heat I suppose. It looks all right though. I was hoping for spectacular though. It's for my bosses birthday, I've known her for well over the last decade and worked with her for half that. I will be leaving soon to start another career, so I was hoping for a special B-day gift.

Anyone ever do Wall Street II's? I saw a couple on here and they looked nice so I though I'd give them a try. I like they way they write, they seem to write better than some kits. They seem to go together kind of funny though. All my ends matched up perfect before I assembled then after I assembled my front seam is a bit off, you can barely tell but I think its because the front isn't pressed into anything, just the back, and the clip presses so hard on the side. Just my theory though.

I'll get some pics up so you can see what I'm talking about though.

All right, here we go, it looks better in the morning light but I just don't like it much for some reason. Meh.