blanks cracking after pen is made

[randy pote]

has anybody had a problem with pen blanks craking after a month or so after the pen is made. i had some bolt action and some buillet twist pens show cracking some were made from wood, some antler . i mean the blanks are cracked the whole leagth of the pen need to replace the blank. maybe out of 250 pens i had about 10 do this . any help would be helpful don't need to keep replacing blanks. plus this is what i have at home i just hope the ones i sold are not doing this.

 

[Lenny]

I have recently had touble with River Buffalo Horn
http://www.penturners.org/forum/f14/river-buffalo-horn-105173/

Only other times I have had trouble it has been unstable wood including some oak burl I had cut.
Just out of curiousity what do you use to glue the tubes in?

 

[1080Wayne]

Wood and possibly antler not dry .

 

[Sawdust46]

I agree with 1080Wayne, they crack as the wood antler dries and contracts.

 

[Lenny]

What is the general rule for antler ... I have heard at least 6 months ... others say 1 year before turning?

 

[JohnGreco]

A good way to determine if it is the wood shrinking is drill the hole in the blank and let it sit for a week. Then see if the tube fits in- if it slides right in, it was dry. If the tube doesn't fit and the hole has to be re-drilled then you are getting contraction from the blank drying more.

 

[plano_harry]

Regarding drying -- what about using water with gorilla glue? Doesn't this increase the risk of cracking?

 

[Coysquibbly]

Definately has to do with moisture and/or climatization. I live in Calgary, (pretty dry place) I have to let all my wood blanks climatize as I had a similar problem. I usually let them sit for 2 plus months before using them. That has almost eliminated the problem.
Some woods are a little more susceptable to cracking, for me padauk, bocote and lacewood seem to be the worst for me.

Kevin

 

[randy pote]

thanks for the replys i just can't figure out why some crack and some don't when they are made at the same time with same blanks sometimes it just get frustrating . but if life was easy it would not be a challenge and so much fun.

 

[mpex]

I just had my first one crack. It was fine for a month. Palm wood, slimline.

 

[Lenny]

Some woods are more prone to cracking, ebony being one and I believe snakewood also.

I use to moisten the inside of the blank when using polyurethane glue but I don't think it is neccessary as the wood has enough moisture to help the glue set.

 

[walshjp17]

Is it better to use epoxy, CA or polyethylene glue (Gorilla Glue) on antler?

 

[Lenny]

I like epoxy to glue my tubes in not just for Antler but for all the pens I make. Polyurethane takes too long and CA often sets up too quick for me! Epoxy has enough working time that I can work on several blanks at one time and yet it sets up and is ready to turn in just a few minutes.

 

[JD Combs Sr]

I like epoxy to glue my tubes in not just for Antler but for all the pens I make. Polyurethane takes too long and CA often sets up too quick for me! Epoxy has enough working time that I can work on several blanks at one time and yet it sets up and is ready to turn in just a few minutes.

I generally use CA but like Lenny epoxy gives you a good amount of time especially if you are doing capped pens. I always use epoxy for anything that is capped. CA continues to offgas for quite sometime and in the inclosed environment of a cap will deposit a white powdery substance onto the components. With CA you can put the cap on a nice black and gold section take it off a day or two later and you got a blotchy white mess to clean off DAMHIKT:biggrin:.

 

[jttheclockman]

I will throw out another possibility that no has mentioned and this is always possible with any kit or material used. OK I will state 2 possibilities now that I think of it as I type this. FIT FIT AND FIT.

What do I mean by this you ask. When pressing a kit together a few things can happen. One being you pressed on a slight angle thus strectching the brass tube. You have a material glued to that tube. That material is thin on the ends. A strees fracture could have occured and over time it developed deeper.

Second possibility. Again Fit is the key word. The kit used has a few thousands more coating on the fittings and now you press them in as before but again you are putting pressure on a small thin area. Take a look sometime at the end of a pen after you pressed in the fittings and see if you see a very slight bulge around the fittings where they get pressed into the tube and I bet nine out of ten times you see this.

Now what some people do and I at times am one to. File the inside of the tube so that the fittings are finger pressed in and then glue them in using Loctite. No undo pressure applied to those thin areas. Now if a hardy pen is being made I may skip that part.

Just food for thought. By the way this stuff has been mentioned before.