Chips under my lathe on fire

[Richard Casey]

Hi Richard! Hope you are well and look forward to seeing you again.

Don't know if you saw this when I posted earlier, but every time I drill deep holes with a Forstner bit I direct a strong, continuous stream of compressed air into the hole behind the bit. This tends to clear the chips as well as cool the bit. (I usually use carbide Forstner's for deep holes - a little rougher cut but that's OK on the inside of a pepper mill.

Love those tropical Aussie timbers you get, in my book the harder the better when it comes to woodturning!

JKJ

Hi John, no I didn't, good idea, but my worry would be where the ejected shavings would end up. I thought I gave you some of this timber, it would have been marked as TPL. It's not our hardest timber, but at 930kg/ cubic metre, if my maths are correct that's 4.8 lbs/ superfoot your lingo, it's getting up there.
Rgds,
Richard.

[Russell Neyman]

The threat of glowing embers falling onto shavings is always a worry, although I doubt the fire can get very far. My own arrangement is to have the lathe standing clear of obstructions on all four sides on a concrete floor. If a fire should start, it's doubtful it can spread beyond the immediate area. Occasionally, I've had a bit of smoke come from under my work, but there has never been an actual flame. I watch those sorts of things very closely.

The elephant in the room is dust collection. If one of those glowing embers gets sucked into the system and lands in your vacuum bin it could easily catch fire. Any Boy Scout will tell you that blowing it with air will only help things burn.

Heat generated during end-boring is problematic. Forstner bits, especially, create a tremendous amount of friction which heats up the moisture in the wood, causing the wood to expand and cause even more friction. My advice is to start with a smaller spade bit and work your way up to the eventual bore size with progressively larger, well-sharpened Forstner bits. Less heat is less stress on the wood.