*&%$@@#BLoodwood!

[Paul Downes]

Blew up another bloodwood blank. That makes 3 in a row. This is angle cut, which shows off a beautiful irredescence. This wood is brittle as heck. I have been having quite the time getting the ends milled. I tried sanding the blanks close and figured on lightly milling the ends after turning the blanks. Found out that doesn't work so well either.
This caused me to have a eureka thought. I'm going to turn a steel cylinder the size of a mill cutter and stick psa sandpaper on it to square up the blanks. Just need a 1/4" hole through it to accept the mill shaft. I'm sure this will work much better on those woods that like to cause 'air' pollution in the shop. I have the carbide cutters- and really like them for some woods, but am of the opinion that the rake angle is too sharp for many woods. aathese cutters tend to bite rather hard on hard dense woods like ebony and cocobolo. I guess if I want a cutter with a neutral or negative rake angle I'll just have to make them myself.

 

[alxe24]

Did you blow any when drilling or milling? If it is milling I would sand on the belt/disk sander if you have one. Otherwise try milling before truning, if the wall is too thing it will crack easier than having the square blank to mill. You can also try puting some thin ca on the end grain just in case if there is any small or micro voids or stress craks.
I don't know if this is your actual problem but I hope it helps.

 

[BRobbins629]

Originally posted by Paul Downes
<br /> I'm going to turn a steel cylinder the size of a mill cutter and stick psa sandpaper on it to square up the blanks. Just need a 1/4" hole through it to accept the mill shaft.

Just turn the cutter upside down and save youself some milling time

 

[Ozzy]

I always mill before I turn because I got tired of all of the blow outs. I very rarely have them now and then its only while I'm turning.

 

[Marc Phillips]

I tried a pen mill... didn't like it at all.. seemed to grab and destroy more often than not...

I just use a simple jig I made and use my disc sander.... squares it up nice and easy... didn't spend any time at all on it... as you can plainly see []

 

[wudnhed]

We have a set up similar to Marc's and we don't mill after turning. I'm sorry your having problems with Bloodwood, it's one of my favorites. Easy to turn and gives a great finish. Just a thought, are you moving your tool rest up closer to your blank a couple times during turning? I found this helped me immensely with biting.

 

[RussFairfield]

Bloodwood is one of those that like to be grabbed by the end-milling cutter, especially if the wood is being pushed by hand, or the cutter is starting to get dull. Try spinning the mill in the lathe headstock at a slow speed, and feeding the wood into the cutter by pushing it with the live-center in the tailstock. Crank in the handwheel to control the depth of cut, and grab the wood with a pair of pliers if you can't keep it from spinning by hand. This way, you will have control of the cut, and not the wood.

There are folks available on this site who will sharpen the end-mills if you can't do that yourself. Use the "search" function to find them. You will be surprized by the difference a sharp tool makes.

 

[Tanner]

Everytime I feel like it's grabbing, I break out the little diamond files and sharpen away. I then get ribbons again.

 

[Paul Downes]

All the failures were during milling. I always CA soak the end grain of cross-cut, angle-cut and spalted woods. I tried sanding on the disk/belt sander but, unfortunatly, I made a bad purchase there. I did give a negative review for this Jet sander I purchased @ Amazon a year or so ago. The base of this machine is plastic (looks desceptivly like iron in the advertisment) and flexes way too much for precision. Funny thing is, they make an identical machine with an iron base. I only found this out after noticing an identical looking machine that weighed a lot more than mine. It's on my to-do list to make a base for this sander so I can put jack screws under the tables to keep them square to the sanding belt/disk.
I like the idea of turning the cutter around, you'd think a backwards guy like me would have thought of that.[]
I sharpen my own cutters. I am a die maker by trade and used to do cutter grinding. They are sharp, maybe too sharp. This is why I mentioned wondering about rake angles. Some woods like to be cut and some like to be scraped, if you know what I mean.
Thanks for all your imput.

 

[Rudy Vey]

Bloodwood is very prone to cracking as well!! I have made only a few Bloodwood pens, but my cracking rate is extremely high. Last winter I made five BW Barons with a double celtic knot design on the cap. Three
so far have cracked - not the DCK cap barrel, but the main barrel. Only one pen I know of is ok, thats the one my wife carries and uses nearly daily, one I don't know of was sold last year in Ireland to a tourist I met at my B+B.
The wood was dry when I used it, it was stored for about three years in my basement (where all my wood is stored). The finish was CA glue and I chamfered the tube (i.e. removed any possible burr with a de-burring tool as I always do), the pen parts slipped very easy into the brass tube, so I can eliminate cracking from this.

 

[wudnhed]

Originally posted by wudnhed
<br /> Just a thought, are you moving your tool rest up closer to your blank a couple times during turning? I found this helped me immensely with biting.

Sorry, when you mentioned "biting" I assumed you were talking about when turning, my bad!!!!

 

[BigRob777]

I love bloodwood, but it's a bear to work. It burns like crazy, when you sand it for flatwork. I've only had one order for bias-cut bloodwood, but I never heard back how they worked out.
Rob

 

[TellicoTurning]

Paul,
I have never turned any blood wood pens, so I can't speak on the milling of them, but I mill all my pens with the DP.. set it a slow speed or at least a slower speed than for drilling and the just touch the ends - before turning - until they are square with the tubes... you have to be careful not to get brass when you get near square.

 

[Paul Downes]

Got to whine some more. I went out to the shop and decided to try to repair the blank. I CA'ed the chip back in and resanded and finished the blank. The repair was invisable. I then decided to assemble this baron kit (Ti-gold fountain) and use it myself or give it away. Wellllll, I pulled a bonehead-brain-fart and had the trim ring on backwards. Went to knock it out to reassemble the pen and what do you know, the chip fractured out along with some more material.
I epoxyed these tubes in to save some time and upon doing a post mortum on the barrel I notice that there is not that much adheshion between the barrel and blank, quite a few voids. Guess I'll go back to gorrila glue. I like the foaming action it has and I wonder if you don't get a better bond.

 

[Marc Phillips]

Originally posted by Paul Downes
<br />Got to whine some more. I went out to the shop and decided to try to repair the blank. I CA'ed the chip back in and resanded and finished the blank. The repair was invisable. I then decided to assemble this baron kit (Ti-gold fountain) and use it myself or give it away. Wellllll, I pulled a bonehead-brain-fart and had the trim ring on backwards. Went to knock it out to reassemble the pen and what do you know, the chip fractured out along with some more material.
I epoxyed these tubes in to save some time and upon doing a post mortum on the barrel I notice that there is not that much adheshion between the barrel and blank, quite a few voids. Guess I'll go back to gorrila glue. I like the foaming action it has and I wonder if you don't get a better bond.

Just my opinion.... but I am curious as to why you choose either epoxy or gorilla glue to secure the tubes in the blank?

I use CA... because the CA is designed for a close fit scenario, whereas the other glues work best in a light clamping scenario... which a tube inserted into a blank really isn't.... or at least, shouldn't be []

I have done the post mortem too... and the tube with the CA isn't going anywhere... I apply the CA and spin the tube as I insert it partway into the blank... then remove it and insert/spin it in the other end and make sure it is flush... POOF! ... all done, and never had one fail.

Might wanna give it a try... easy to do and no waiting... []

 

[bananajeep]

Recently while making a batch of slimlines I wanted to lightly trim the blanks before turning (some of the woods would tear or burn when using the barrel trimmer. I found an old screwdriver in my tool box with a shaft that was 1/4 or 7mm in diameter (tuned up with emmory cloth and steel wool). I cut off the tip and gound it to a point. Mounted it in my jacobs chuck in the head stock and trued up the handle where it meet the metal shaft (to 90 degrees) then I cut out a piece of 150 grit sand paper (square, just larger that the diameter of the trued up handle punched a 1/4 hole in it. I slipped the sandpaper (grit facing away from the handle) on the metal shaft and glued it to the handle and trimmed to the handle diameter. now I can fine tune trim blanks before and after turning without tear outs and burning. your blanks need to be very close to the proper length or this will take forever. Once the sand paper is wasted I can just peel it off and put a new one on. Works great so far.

Hope this helps
Mike

 

[Paul Downes]

Marc, I have observed quite a variety of clearances between the tubes and the holes in the wood. I suspect there is a lot of contributing factors like; machineability of the wood, run-out on the drill, specified drill size not optomized to the kit. I'm not sure if CA will fill voids any better than poly. I also had a few kits that were tight to the point where I had trouble getting the tubes in. I would be afraid of trying CA on those particular kits as the heat from the friction might set the glue before they are compleatly inserted. I have wondered what the tolerance spec. is on the tubes supplied in kits. I would think that they vary in size just like some of the kit parts.
All that blathering aside, I am thinking about getting some thick CA with my next bulk order and trying that stuff out for a bit. Thank's for your comments.

I just returned a metric drill set to the tool supply shop because the drill shanks were tapered and the drill bits slightly tacoed. Serves me right for going with the cheap Chinese set. Got a U.S.A. made set now.

 

[Marc Phillips]

Originally posted by Paul Downes
<br />Marc, I have observed quite a variety of clearances between the tubes and the holes in the wood. I suspect there is a lot of contributing factors like; machineability of the wood, run-out on the drill, specified drill size not optomized to the kit. I'm not sure if CA will fill voids any better than poly. I also had a few kits that were tight to the point where I had trouble getting the tubes in. I would be afraid of trying CA on those particular kits as the heat from the friction might set the glue before they are compleatly inserted. I have wondered what the tolerance spec. is on the tubes supplied in kits. I would think that they vary in size just like some of the kit parts.
All that blathering aside, I am thinking about getting some thick CA with my next bulk order and trying that stuff out for a bit. Thank's for your comments.

I just returned a metric drill set to the tool supply shop because the drill shanks were tapered and the drill bits slightly tacoed. Serves me right for going with the cheap Chinese set. Got a U.S.A. made set now.

OK... well, I dry fit first before gluing... and check the fit of the drill to the tubes on some scrap before drilling a blank... If the fit isn't right, I make it right before even attempting to glue anything...

If it's too tight, use the next drill bit up... or re drill using the same bit as the wood may have moved a little due to the internal stresses being relieved by drilling... sometimes just another pass will make it right...

I feel that trying to fill gaps with any type of a glue is a bad idea... and that foam that the Poly U produces has no strength at all.

My suggestion is to fix the root of the problem... drill the hole the right size and the CA will really stick it! []