A small tip about drilling

Today I cut some bloodwood on the band saw, and I will try to make a magnifying glass, a letter opener, a Classic American pencil and a Bullet Tip Americana pen out of the blanks. I still ran into a bit of trouble with the magnifier and letter opener blanks. The tubes got stuck a bit. However, this is less of a problem than it would be with a pen blank, as I can shave off the ends of the tube and just end up with a shorter handle on the magnifier or opener. I might not even have to do that - if the kits call for parting off some of the wood, I can just make it so that the part that is already out of the blank is the part that has been parted off. We'll have to see.

I did figure out that, with bloodwood at least, drilling quickly is the answer to some of the drilling issues. When I drilled through the blank quickly, the tubes fit more easily into the holes. We'll have to see if that holds with other woods as well. If that could be the answer to the cocobolo drilling nightmare, I would be very happy.

Of course, even with drilling quickly, I got a tube stuck in one of the blanks, as stated earlier (one of them I drilled slowly, so that does not count), so there may be a bit more of a learning curve.

Another tip I learned a little while ago, that I made use of again today: Thin latex gloves help with the gluing process. I do not get glue all over my hands any more.

Hopefully soon there will be pictures of bloodwood crafts to post. I am a bit scared of the bullet tip pen. The turning process includes parting a tenon in one of the halves of the pen, and also the top part of the pen does not get evenly turned. The very top of the pen is thinner than the part near the middle, so there is a gradual thickening. I messed this up the first time I put one of these together.

Yesterday I bought 10 slimline kits, like the one that I made with cocobolo. If you buy them in packs of 10 you get a discount. So, I may be making a lot more slimlines. Not a big deal now that I can cut the blanks myself, so I do not lose as much wood in the turning process.