Never had this happen before

[qquake]

This is a Snowflake blank from Berea. The first one blew up on me, not sure why. I was using a carbide chisel, and wasn't being aggressive for a change. It looks like I had pretty good epoxy coverage in it. But kablooie happens, so I turned it off the tube and started over with the second of two red blanks I had. I used 30 minute epoxy on the second blank, because it's stronger than 5 minute. You can see in the first photos, that the brass tube was relatively centered in the blank. I let it set overnight, and this morning I see this. The tube somehow moved, and is no longer centered. The only thing I can think is that the epoxy expanded or contracted and caused the tube to "creep" towards one end. It was in my house, which was in the mid 60's overnight.

I'll go ahead and turn it, and see what happens. If anything, the three snowflakes won't be centered from front to back. I'm anxious to see how it looks.

 

[randyrls]

Jim; I've had "creep" happen with Gorilla Glue. I always check the blank after about 20-30 minutes to make sure. Depending on the kit and blank this may or may not be a problem. If possible, I would make that blank the cap end. It is less critical in length.

 

[X-crAFt custom ink]

Ugh. I hate when this happens. I have done this many many times. I find the problem to be one of five things. 1. Not enough glue or glue coverage. 2. There is a gap between the tube and the blank that was caused by a bad drill. 3. Too much heat, the blanks got hot and just went boom. 4. I took it to close to the tube, so I turned it to thin and it shattered. 5. the glue is not fully set. I am very guilty of this one because i have very little patience. On the back of the epoxies on the labels there is always two timing information pieces, one is how long tell it sets up and the second is how long until it cures. You want to look at the cure time. On mercury 5 minute its one hour but I usually leave it over night. That said I have turned it at one hour and it was fine, But for insurance I normally leave it for 3-4 and then turn it. The only other thing I can think of is Did you scuff the tube?? I have heard many opinions on that, some say you don't need to but I think it helps get a better bond. I hope this is helpful, Stay safe and Happy Holidays.

 

[qquake]

I'm aware of setting vs. curing time. But I have turned pens within 10 or 20 minutes after epoxying them. Considering the number of pens I turn, I have relatively few blowouts, so I consider myself lucky. As for scuffing the tube, I always do, always have. I don't know for sure if it helps, but it can't hurt. And in cases where I paint the tube, the paint covers it better when it's scuffed.

In my defense, there is always the possibility that there was a defect in the blank. It does happen.

 

[wolf creek knives]

I'm thinking it's the blank Jim. My example is one of the very few acrylic blanks that was colored had a really small air bubble in it that I noticed while turning. It was close to the outside of the blank so I thought I'd just cut past it. Didn't happen. I caught the bubble with my tool edge and it shattered. The reason I know it was the bubble was that I could still see where part of the bubble was. The rest of the blank was just fine.

 

[qquake]

Jim; I've had "creep" happen with Gorilla Glue. I always check the blank after about 20-30 minutes to make sure. Depending on the kit and blank this may or may not be a problem. If possible, I would make that blank the cap end. It is less critical in length.

I would expect it with polyurethane glue, because it expands. But I've never had epoxy expand before.

 

[TonyL]

Sometimes it may just be a "bad" blank or weak spot in a blank. Too much A, not enough B or the like.