Jeff, I doubt you are losing your touch, or that it is the glue you are using. The inherent problem in LOTS of kits, are that the turned element, be it wood, acrylic or whatever is ridiculously thin--this is a fact that I noticed early on, and is one reason I like Smitty's pen works Le Roi V2 kit, it uses 3/8 tubes and you get to leave a little more meat on the bone so to speak--translate--thicker turned portion of material.
So long story shortened, when you are using delicate materials, like In lace acrylester blanks, highly burled wood and yes segmented blanks right near the bushings, where the turning is super thin is where you are going to have issues, to stick with these particular style kits, I would recommend stop turning as soon as you are within shouting distance of your bushings, and go to the 'shaping' paper, as they call it in Australia, I have even had occasions where I (and others I know) went to a pretty heavy grit to begin sanding with, and actually fine tune the final shape of the blank--we're talking 60 grit
So do this--take a pen you have successfully turned similar to the one you are trying to build now and pull the pen apart and look at just how thin the turning is--I think you may be surprised.
Good luck, I know blowing those blanks up gets awfully frustrating--and expensive!
PS, I have found that you are far more likely to blow something up with Carbide tools than HSS ones. Just an FYI--IME
