Dvoigt

I am new to pen turning.... and I have turned about 20 so far with no major issues. This weekend I cut 20 blanks and glued in 20 7mm tubes (for 10 pens) and 10 blanks with 10mm tubes (for 5 pens).

I used the 2 part epoxy and after gluing them they sat for about a day and a half. I then used my barrel trimer in my drill press to square them off. All of the 10mm blanks had no issues, but win i was squaring off the 7mm ones I had the blanks in 4 out of 6 get stuck to the pen mill and pull out of the blank! I stopped out of frustration....

What is the problem?? I used the same wood, even the same batch of epoxy for both the 10mm and some of the 7mm. When the blank are getting pulled out they have some wood on them, so they are bonding to the wood. Also the pen mill moves freely in the tube, so it isn't that the tube is undersized....

Anyone!? Help

firehawkmph

Dv,
Did you have an excess of epoxy get into the ends of the tubes? I have never had any tubes come out like you are describing, but I normally use medium CA glue. Never used epoxy. My only guess would be the epoxy being very hard when set caused the trimming bit to catch and pull the tube out, assuming you had the wood secured somehow. Had you used the 7mm trimmer before without any trouble, or was this the first time? Brass can be very grabby if the tube is not aligned the same as the bit. I usually lower the bit into the tube and then tighten the vise on my drill press.
Mike Hawkins

Dvoigt

I've done 7mm before with no issues. I usually clamp my blank in a vise that i have with a V-notch to keep it in line. I also run the pen mill into the blank before turning it on to make sure there it moves ok.

Dvoigt

as i was laying in bed thinking about this. I think I may be on to something. My pen mill is probably too dull and when I press down on the drill press it isn't sharp enough to cut the shave the brass so it just pushes it down...

That is a thought. I'll try to sharpen the mill and see if that improves the situation