Piece smoking?

[Robert Dicke]

Another newbie question- turning a vase out of a glue of of black walnut. Wanted to drill it to start hollowing out. Put a forstner bit in my tail stock chuck and started cranking it is. As soon as the bit touched the wood it started to smoke. I tried a smaller bit but same issue. Tried a regular drill bit and was able to drill it a bit but still a lot of smoke and the heat discolored the bit. What am I doing wrong?

[Robert Dicke]

416662
Picture of vase and discolored bit

[Tim Janssen]

The bit turning the wrong way ?????

[Robert Dicke]

I don’t think so. Drill bits turn clockwise but are held still in the chuck. The lathe is spinning towards me so compared to the bit the piece spins counter-clockwise.

[Dwight Rutherford]

I drill at 500rpm, go 1/2” then withdraw to clear chips,then another 1/2” etc.

[Brice Rogers]

Perhaps the two bits were dull ?

[Timothy Thorpe Allen]

Are the headstock and tailstock properly aligned?

Is the piece mounted squarely? I assume it is held in a chuck?

How fast is your lathe turning?

And what Brice said -- maybe the bits are dull?

[Edward Dyas]

The RPM was probably too fast for it to be happy. Is the bit sharp? Either or both issues can cause it to smoke.

[Barry McFadden]

I agree with the suggestions that the speed was probably too fast for drilling... I also drill at 500 rpm (or less) as Dwight stated...

[Pat Scott]

Like others have said a dull bit and/or too fast are the only things that cause smoking. A 3rd reason could be a cheap forstner bit. I bought a Rockler brand forstner bit one time and brand new it was a bear to drill with and always smoked. These days I only use Famag Bormax or Colt Maxicut forstner bits.

[Reed Gray]

I would guess a dull bit. In my experience, walnut for some reason seems to dull every thing faster than other woods.

robo hippy

[Glen Cowan]

Suggest starting with a smaller bit and be careful. The drill bits can become very hot! A member of our turning club burned down his shop after drilling. Evidently an ember fell into the shavings below his lathe. After drilling he went to another room for a brief time, when he returned there was a major fire which spread quickly because of fans he had running. Entire shop was a loss.

[John K Jordan]

Another newbie question- turning a vase out of a glue of of black walnut. Wanted to drill it to start hollowing out. Put a forstner bit in my tail stock chuck and started cranking it is. As soon as the bit touched the wood it started to smoke. I tried a smaller bit but same issue. Tried a regular drill bit and was able to drill it a bit but still a lot of smoke and the heat discolored the bit. What am I doing wrong?

A suggestion, (once you get it drilling properly!) I discovered years ago that drilling with Forstner bits was much more enjoyable when I directed a continuous stream of compressed air into the hole behind the bit. This helps keep the bit cool and helps keep the chips cleared which prevents jamming (which helps keep the bit cool!) I almost never have to stop and back out the bit in the middle of a hole.

Another thing which has helped me on the lathe - instead of using good quality Forstner bits that cut very smooth an accurate holes I use a set of inexpensive carbide bits for most holes. They don't leave as clean a hole but they are faster and don't get dull like tool steel and HSS bits. I've been using the same set for maybe 15 years now.

JKJ

[Kyle Iwamoto]

If you don't need a nice smooth hole, I use those cheap spade bits. They can easily be sharpened. When I want to drill deeper holes, I use a ship auger bit (available from your local HD/Lowes). Not cheap, but they don't smoke and they self clear. Drill slowly with the auger bit. They are designed to self feed and can get rather exciting when spun with some power.

[Glenn C Roberts]

John, Can you tell us what your carbide bits are please? Spade, jobber,etc.

[John K Jordan]

John, Can you tell us what your carbide bits are please? Spade, jobber,etc.

Carbide Forstner. I bought two sets of Forstners in nice wooden cases from Wood craft on a closeout a decade alone, one set steel, one carbide. If the type I got have a more descriptive name than that I don't know it. Each has two pointed carbide cutters on the outer diameter and two long flat cutters. They are very much like this inexpensive metric sets I got more recently: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MEBWIYM

Most of what I use Forstner bits for doesn't need perfectly clean holes. The carbide Forstner bits are not bad but don't cut as cleanly as the high end Forstners.

JKJ

[robert baccus]

I don't think bits get that dull--check the blade orientation.

[Bill Boehme]

Some causes of burning:

dull bits
black walnut often has hard mineral deposits too smaall to see unless you have SEM (scanning electron microscope)
headstock and tailstock not perfectly aligned
lathe speed too fast ... use 250 for Forstner bits
too much tailstock pressure ... don't try to force the bits to cut. If the Forstner bits were blued then they are toast
drill bits do get dull a lot faster than most people realize ... how fast do your HSS lathe tools get dull? And yet we expect drill bits to last forever.

[Stan Calow]

I had trouble drilling with forstners on the lathe too. What I found was that even though the tail and headstock looked perfectly aligned when examined up close, when I put a long bit in the tail, there was a bit of a droop to it. That was enough to create a problem.