Various problems...

[CameronPotter]

Hi,

Yesterday I had some mixed success - I turned my favourite pen so far (jarrah with a crosscut insert of sassafras that comehow went chatoyant).

Fantastic, problem is that I tried several other things that all failed. :mad:

1. Black wattle. This was looking really great, but then suffered blow out on an end. I turned down to the tube and glued on a section of jarrah as a highlight. This worked well, but then the other section tore out in the middle. Right! I thought, I will have one part black wattle with a highlight, the next part will be jarrah. So doing this, I thought maybe the wood is playing up a bit, so I decided I would try to finish it to shape (it wasn't far off) with the ol' 80 grit gouge. Even this caused blow out!! :eek: Grrrrr. Any suggestions about what went wrong?

2. Tried a myrtle burl pen. The only problem is that it wouldn't grip on the mandrel. I tightened the screw and the wood still spun almost freely. Then, I checked the ends and it appeared that the wood had receded from the brass tube a bit (don't ask me how). So I went and used the pen mill to sort it out again - went back to the lathe and tried again - same problem. At this point I gave up in disgust and went inside deciding that maybe it wasn't my afternoon for turning.

Anyway, any hints or tips about what might have gone wrong would be gratefully appreciated.

Cam

[fxst]

I think its the old 'Some days are diamonds some days are coal'.
I would reckon we all get that at times. Going inside is probably the smartest move. Its amazing what a cuppa can do
Pete

[CameronPotter]

Yeah, that was my thinking. I couldn't think of what was going wrong - so I decided that it was time to leave it alone before doing something monumentally stupid out of frustration and if I wasn't enjoying it, why continue?

That being said, if there are simple answers - I would love to hear them!!:confused:

[KevM]

Cameron,
A couple of things that I do are to roughen up the tube prior to gluing with 150 grit paper, this give the glue a key. Secondly after having a few failures in the glue up, I started using a selleys two pack, solved the problems that I was experiencing with spinning tube (at times) and now get very little departure of timber from the tube on that final pass with the tools.

Kev M

[CameronPotter]

Thanks Kev,

But I am actually not sure that it was due to the tube coming free. I can't get the tube out, yet it spins freely. This makes me think that it is something else. I have had experience with the blank coming free from the tube (using acrylic and a glue that wasn't suitable), but this seems different.

Still, I might double check it.

Cheers

Cam

[KevM]

Cam,
I have found that when squaring the ends of my pen blanks with the pen mill, in the process of cutting, you will slightly flare the end of the brass tube over on the final cut with the mill, consequently, in most cases even though the glue has let go, the tube will not withdraw from the timber due to this slight flaring.

Kev M

[CameronPotter]

Ahhh. That might be it.

Thanks Kev.

I will see about that.

Cam