Help, need a quick opinion.

[Sam Fleisher]

New turner and was making my first handle for my thompson bowl gouge.

It was a kit from one of the stores online, anyway I put some epoxy in the drilled hole and must have put to much because the gouge wouldn't go in all the way then. So I rigged it up between my chuck and tailstock and applied some force. It was going alright with the gouge going in and epoxy coming out around the gouge.

Heard a pop and the hydraulic pressure had split the handle behind the ferrule maybe underneath ferrule too can't tell.

I am using a long use time epoxy so should I yank the gouge out while I can and call that a learning experience or should I leave it be and let the epoxy harden. It's supposed to be some super duper adhesive epoxy yada yada yada.

Help

Sam

[kevin nee]

I would yank it and start over tomorrow. Have a few beers and forget about the other handle.

[Sam Fleisher]

I think that's what I'm going to do because I'll always know the crack is there and it'll bug me.

Maybe I'll get lucky and can save the ferrule.

Thanks

[Chris A Lawrence]

I would do the same thing. I would be more worried of that crack breaking the handle with a catch rather then looks though. If you cant salvage the ferrule you can always make one if you have a piece of 3/4 or 1 inch copper pipe. That is all i use when i make handles is a 1 inch or so piece of 1 inch copper pipe for the ferrule.

[Mark Greenbaum]

Next time drill a small release valve hole at the bottom of where the tool will rest, to allow the air to escape.

[John Keeton]

Actually, the epoxy is just to keep the tool from rotating - the shaft isn’t going to come out as the pressure is against the tool. So, all you need is a small amount on the last half inch of the shaft to enter the hole. Don’t put the epoxy in the hole.

[Sam Fleisher]

I was able to save the ferrule. I have pipe too I'd just bought this kit because I wanted my first good bowl gouge (thompson) to look good. Now I can make me a nice black walnut file handle or something shorter like that.

[Reed Gray]

I never use epoxy, mostly because it isn't necessary. Doug has a mill line on his tool shafts, and that is how deep your hole needs to be drilled. I usually go a hair past that, To seat the tool, I bang the butt end on my work bench, directly over a leg so there is no spring. It is kind of reverse hammering, but is an old technique, I do show that on my video about making tool handles for square tanged tools like scrapers. The epoxy can also make a seal around the tool and you get air trapped inside the hole, and you can only compress the air so much and you can never get the tool all the way seated. Rather than use your tailstock and headstock to press the tool into the handle, if you have some heavy bar clamps, they are made for that kind of pressure. Use a side grain piece of wood on the metal end...

robo hippy

[Brice Rogers]

The epoxy, shaft and hole created a piston. The air can compress, but the epoxy cannot. If you only put in a little epoxy and made the hole deep enough, then you were compressing the air. If you put in a lot of epoxy and/or didn't drill the hole long enough, you were trying to compress the epoxy. You created a hydraulic cylinder. Like water, it is considered to be essentially "non-compressible". When I have epoxied a handle, I will either drill a small vent hole to the outside into the bottom of the cavity or will take a dremel tool with an abrasive disk and make relief slots in the direction of the shaft. That way, when I push in the handle, the air or excess epoxy is vented and I can either just use hand pressure or can "reverse hammer" as Reed mentioned.

[John K Jordan]

Another idea: I quit epoxying tools into handles but instead make adapters and hold them with set screws.

handle_inserts.jpg Handle_adpater_alum_IMG_6001.jpg


You can buy these adapters or make your own. I've made them from aluminum on the wood lathe.

IMG_20150420_121555_806_se.jpg shavings_IMG_20150420_12241.jpg finished_small.jpg

One big advantage to these is you can use on handle with more than one tool. For example, I keep six 3/8" Thompson sharp spindle gouges in a drawer and swap them out in one handle as they get dull. This saves a lot of tool storage space. Another advantage is I like to set some tool shafts deep into a hole in the handle with just a shorter part of the tool extended. This gives me more control for detail work.

JKJ

[Sam Fleisher]

I've seen similar on the net and liked the idea but I just used the ferrule because I bought a kit mainly for the longer walnut blank it had. Do you make yours for sale?

It looks like you have it threaded where it goes into the handle that would be better than some I've seen.

What do they start out as or do you have a metal lathe?

[John K Jordan]

I've seen similar on the net and liked the idea but I just used the ferrule because I bought a kit mainly for the longer walnut blank it had. Do you make yours for sale?
It looks like you have it threaded where it goes into the handle that would be better than some I've seen.
What do they start out as or do you have a metal lathe?

I don't thread but just cut grooves to give the epoxy something to grab when I glue them into the wood. None of the commercial ones I've seen do this so maybe it's not needed but it only takes a few seconds. Threads might be nice but difficult to do on a wood lathe.

I do have a metal lathe which I usually use but I have made a few from aluminum using the wood lathe mosty just to see if I could. It's not as fast as turning wood but it works well. I use standard woodturning tools such as skew, parting tool, scrapers, and spindle gouge. I start with a short piece of aluminum rod - this picture is with a piece of rod mounted in a Nova chuck on a Jet 1642 lathe, starting the through hole with a center bit. I buy stock from Online Metals and sometimes find it a the local metal recycling place. I think I bought this: https://www.onlinemetals.com/merchan...277&top_cat=60

IMG_20150420_110928_149_se_small.jpg

The procedure:
- mount in a chuck
- drill the through hole for the tool
- turn down the part that is glued into the handle (tenon)
- make the glue grooves
- reverse the piece in the chuck and hold by the tenon
- turn the part that shows
- drill and tap for the set screws.

BTW, you can easily turn aluminum and brass on the wood lathe with standard tools. Here are a few things from metals and plastics. Little brass finials and feet look great on woodturnings! (For brass get 360 "free machining" type)

aluminum_brass_plastic.jpg

One reason I started making these is all the commercial inserts I found were made with 1" diameter which I found awkward to hold and far larger than needed for 1/4" and 3/8" gouges. The third one from the left in the earlier photo is one of these. The second one in the photo is far more to my liking for detail work since I often hold the tool one-handed close to the shaft. The second and sixth are steel. BTW, if using steel I can make the wall a little thinner since the set screws won't need as many threads as in the softer aluminum.

I've made a few for friends but I've never sold one. If I started doing that it might be too much like work - ack! If you live anywhere near East TN or drive through sometime stop in and we'll make one - the cost would be a good story!

JKJ

[Sam Fleisher]

This time of year I wish I lived a little further south for some nicer weather but I'm up here in Illinois just west of Peoria.

I don't think my boxer dogs would survive a long trip. (one of them anyway)


Sam