Ebony and yellowheart

[P Crews]

I glued up some ebony and yellowheart with thin CA to make a crochet hook. I cut the angles at 15 degrees wiped the ebony with DNA, used an accellerate and CA. It keeps blowing apart on the lathe while I'm cutting it.:crybaby2:I'd scrape the old glue off, reglue it, then another one would blow out. Finally I couldn't get it lined up right and there would be too much wobble in it. Well let's just say I can't find all of the pieces now that it flew across the shop.:BangHead: What am I doing wrong other than throwing it? I know people have glued up ebony and yellowheart and turned it.

Thanks

Paul

 

[Makinsawdust]

Paul,
I'm curious. Is there a reason you are using CA glue? I haven't had much success with CA except for repair work that don't see much stress.
I would use yellow PVA glue (Titebond II). I've never had a problem with any wood combination coming apart with it and y-heart and ebony are not very hard to glue. You shouldn't even need to do the DNA wipe down unless you just want to. I've found that glueing the surface of each piece before bringing them together is the best way to make sure you get a consistant bond.
After re-reading your post I have another question. Are you glueing end-grain to end-grain? If so this may also be part of your problem. There's not enough surface area on something this small to get by with an end-grain to end-grain glue up.
FYI, BTW, FWIW, and WC (Who Cares), I do exotic and domestic wood laminations daily. It is my day job.
Rob

 

[DaveO]

I have glued both together, end grain to end grain, with thick CA in the past and it's worked out fine, but I have also had blow outs. Both of those woods are tough to turn and really require very sharp tools. That possibly could be your problem :dontknow: It also sounds like a crochet hook would be turned pretty thin, could you be getting some flex on the piece while turning it down, causing the glue bonds to snap. CA is a strong glue but it is also very brittle and can fracture with sideways pressure.

Dave

 

[P Crews]

Thanks Rob and Dave. I thought CA was the thing to use.:slap: I'm learning slowly but surely. Yep, I was glueing end to end. Now I sharpened my tools before I started turning it and even hit the skew again after one of the blowouts. Well back to the drawing board. :eusa_thin I thought the yellow and black were real cool together. Thanks again

Paul

 

[DaveO]

Another thing that I have found difficult when turning woods of different densities is the transition between them. You might be applying a little more tool force to the Ebony and then you move into the YH and it cuts a bit easier resulting in taken a deeper bite than anticipated.
Dave

 

[P Crews]

Another thing that I have found difficult when turning woods of different densities is the transition between them. You might be applying a little more tool force to the Ebony and then you move into the YH and it cuts a bit easier resulting in taken a deeper bite than anticipated.
Dave

Yeah, I noticed that. I kept saying to myself light cuts, light cuts. Well the force wasn't strong with this one. I need a shop Yoda. :lol:

 

[Eaglesc]

End grain to end grain with any wood/ adhesive is iffy.
That being said I use CA in most if not all my glue ups and they are pretty intricate.
Could you post a picture of a non blown up blank that you have glued up?
There may be some suggestions I could make to strngthen the joint.
One suggestion would be to glue"from the inside out" after drilling.
Drilling creates heat and the CA has a working temp up to 160*.
I always drizzle thin CA in the hole after drilling, let it set and revolve the blank.This coats the wood on the inside.
I pour out the excess and hit with acelerant.
Let set a few minutes and clean out the hole with the same Drill bit by hand.
This fills any voids in the blank on the inside.
It may be over kill but I don't have many blow outs.