Piece smoking?

[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.