Exploded view of a Celtic Knot

[maxman400]

This was my second attempt at a Celtic knot. I thought I had it down pretty good so I grabbed one of my best looking olive wood blanks and went to work. All went well until I started drilling, and that's when it exploded. :thunder: The glue gave way, the aluminum slid out and the blank snapped. I did a little war dance, said a few things and put it in a junk box and walked away. That was a month ago, so today I saw it again and decided that if I wanted to say that I build pens then I needed to fix this one. :doctor: So after three hours of work, this is what I ended up with. It has a CA finish, I would not try to sell it but I am happy with the fact that it did not beat me. :biggrin: Comment's always welcome, thanks for looking.

 

[shull]

As the old sbut rather saying goes ... We are not judged by our failures but rather how we recover from those failures.

 

[louisbry]

Nice pen. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Greg O'Sherwood]

Veni, vidi, vassni...

You came, you sawed, YOU KICKED IT'S @#$%!!!!!!!


:highfive:

.

 

[hewunch]

Great save!

 

[Rollerbob]

Nice job there, Maxman!!

 

[jttheclockman]

Nice save but you did not tell us any details. What caused the failure in the first place??? What type glue did you use??? What did you do to save it??? How will you avoid this in the future??? Thanks for the reply.

 

[THarvey]

Great save. Nice looking pen.

 

[ldb2000]

I read this posts title and came here expecting to see a tutorial with diagrams on how to make a Celtic knot , and all i see is a broken blank and a beautiful pen ...... WHERE'S THE TUTORIAL !!! ....:biggrin::wink:



Great save .

 

[TurnaPen]

Good save, it is great when we triumph despite our failings. Amos

 

[maxman400]

I read this posts title and came here expecting to see a tutorial with diagrams on how to make a Celtic knot , and all i see is a broken blank and a beautiful pen ...... WHERE'S THE TUTORIAL !!! ....:biggrin::wink:



Great save .

Well I am not efficient enough to do a tutorial, and the light did not go on until YOU gave the tip about using a soldering iron to heat up the CA glue on a tube that was stuck 1/2 in. I was trying to use a wood brad point bit to drill through the Aluminum and it over heated causing the glue to fail, this caused the blank to break in half. I have switched to using Dewalt bullet tip bits.
I guess the wisdom here, Is to be sure to use a sharp drill bit and don't over heat the blank.

 

[johncrane]

At least you got it fixed thats the main thing.

 

[randyrls]

The info to use only a non-brad point bit is right on!

Additionally, make sure you place a support block under the blank before you start drilling. That first photo looked just like one I did where I forgot to use the support block. Use only gently clamping pressure on the blank.

 

[broitblat]

Great save! It would have been a shame to waste that one.

-Barry

 

[rjwolfe3]

Very Nice!

 

[leehljp]

On another forum this past week, a similar situation occurred. I learned a little trick from Eagle about 3 or so years ago that helps this situation.

On delicate sections and segments after they are glued up - wrap some thread around it tightly and cover the area completely with the thread. Then CA the thread before drilling. Takes about 10 minutes on average and makes it much stronger at the segment points and you don't have to look back and say "I wish I had done something different."

 

[brokenbit]

To add to Leehlip answer, Eagle Also said to made sura the glue had settup, I wait till the next day before drilling.

Bernie

 

[bitshird]

It would have been a great shame to waste such beautiful piece of lumber like that, You made a great save and a very nice pen.

 

[leehljp]

To add to Leehlip answer, Eagle Also said to made sura the glue had settup, I wait till the next day before drilling.

Bernie

You are RIGHT on the waiting. I did spray some accelerator on mine when I tried it. It worked great but I did have a double layer of string that I didn't mention above.

 

[maxman400]

This Is why I love being a member of the IAP, it has such great information and experience. Thanks you guy for all of the tips.