Some days you should just stay out of the shop

[Doug B]

I got absolutely zero accomplished today. Been working on a couple things and nothing went right. I guess some days a just like this.

Now, is there something wrong with what I'm doing here? I tried to put a strip of Bloodwood in the middle of a BOW pen blank. First, it blew apart when I drilled it...just before the drill bit broke through the bottom of the blank. I patched it back up and re-drilled very carefully. Glued in the tubes, trimmed the ends, put it on the lathe, and within 2 seconds it blew apart on me.



I have used Bloodwood with Bow before, but not lengthwise right down the middle. I used 2 part epoxy both for the patch up and to glue the tube in. I'm wondering if the design is the problem - too big a strip of wood right in the middle of the blank, and that maybe Bloodwood does not adhere all that well.

Oh well, probably just a bad day. Hopefully things will go better tomorrow, but I have to re-assess this particular design.

Any suggestions?

[rhull]

I've experienced lots of problems with bloodwood blowouts with pen drilling. Something about the hardness and fragility of bloodwood.

[Joe Lyddon]

Possible to Clamp it so it can't come apart while drilling?

With one of those old style Wooden Ckamps...

[TDHofstetter]

Hmmmmm... it SURE LOOKS like it blew apart right along the glue lines. Is there any residual epoxy on those surfaces? Did you allow plenty (PLENTY) of time for the epoxy to cure... or accelerate it by heating? "Five minute" epoxy doesn't set up to full cure in five minutes, it only goes solid. Full cure takes quite a lot longer, even if you're heating it.

The drilling blowout - that I've seen in bloodwood. I don't see it any more 'cause I'm using Limey's handy-dandy automagic centering device so I drill in from both ends & meet myself in the middle. I've had drilling blowouts (before I started using this thingie) in all sorts of woods, right at the bottom.

[Doug B]

Rob, I suspect the Bloodwood too. Although I have used this very same design with Anlter before with not problems. I dunno, I just dunno about this one.

Joe, I use a pen vice that puts pretty good clamping on the blank while I'm drilling it, so it was clamped together pretty well. I suspect that I needed to slow down right at the end of the drilling and did not do that well enough...I do know that I need to do that and usually I manage to do that. This one kinda snuck up on me and blew out before I started backing off.

Tim, it did separate right at the glue line both times. That is why I suspect the Bloodwood. Maybe my patch from the drilling blowout was not strong enough - I had to try to sand the glue off and rough up the wood without losing too much material. It was probably a weak joint to start with, but I have gotten away with doing that before - just not with this particular design and wood combination.

Oops. Forgot about the cure time Tim. This particular blank got more than 24 hours of cure time before I put it on the lathe. There were a couple of other issues today before this one just made me close up the shop and go have a cold one

[TDHofstetter]

That sure looks like it's pointin' at poor adhesion between the epoxy & the bloodwood. Ya might give the bloodwood a quick rinse with acetone before you try it again (if you do) to make sure all oils are cleaned off the surface.

[Doug B]

Thanks Tim, I'll give the acetone treatment a try next time. I've used this particular bloodwood for quite some time and not had near the problems as I got this time.

Probably something I'm doing wrong on this one.

[mapleman]

Tim beat me to it -- I was going to suggest acetone (or mineral spirits) b/c tropical woods are often so oily that glues and finishes will not work without good prep.

keep at it Doug --- just one of those things, eh?

john