glen r
Member
I was having problems with my Sierra blanks blowing up when being turned and today I think I finally found the reason that the blanks were blowing up. I had a completed blank today that I didn't like the looks of and decided to turn the acrylic off. I found that most of the blank was not attached/glued to the tube so I started checking. I found that the 27/64 drill bit that I had bought especially for this purpose was turning about 1/16" out of round causing the hole to be bigger than the tube. This in turn did not allow the glue to bond to both surfaces throughout its entire length. I tried one of the bits from my big set and found that there was no wobble on the bit so it was not the drill press. I bored a piece of curly maple and the tube was much tighter than it was using the other bit. I hope this solves the blow up problem as there is nothing more frustrating than getting close to finishing and a piece just pops out - start all over.