Pens??

Ok all you Guru's of Pen Turning, what am I doing wrong?
I cut the blank I am using to size, drill the right size hole in it and then use CA and glue the tube in .
Then I put them on the mandel and tighten it properly. start turning and I get it down almost to size, and one of the pieces will split.
I not using excessive force when I turn them or taking big cuts. Help, getting tired of throwing away 3 bucks worth of Wood (I am usinig Plnk Ivory,And I have used it all up now)

Are you trimming the blanks after gluing the tubes?

Are they separating from the tubes when they split?

How thin is the wood when it splits?

Are you having this same trouble with other woods?

Yes Doug I square the ends. It is like about a quarter of the tube of wood splits off. the part that splits comes unglued I guess.
And Yes it has happened before with different types of wood? I don't understand it my tools are sharpened proir to start turning??

I've always had good luck with CA, but you might give epoxy a shot and see how well it works. The other thing is to leave the wood just a little thicker and of course, take light cuts near the end.

Is the CA glue the medium stuff? Are you scuffing up the tubes on a piece of sandpaper before gluing them in? Richard I'll be around Sat. night if you want to come over, just give me a call.

OK guys, We, that is Dave and I, discovered that I wasn't scuffing up the tube. Causing the glue not to stick on part of a tube, letting that part of the wooden tube to move allowing it to split.
Oh well, you live and learn.

I have moved to gorilla glue for my pen blanks. It is activated by water and expands like three times its volume. So AFTER scuffing the tube, I work it in and out in a spinning motion from both ends. Then cover the ends of the blank and clamp it in a clamp with pieces of plastic covering the ends. This prevents the expanding glue from exiting. More operations, and longer dry time, but this has worked for me.

I am not certain if this would work with reverse painting or very thin walled pens. The glue has a color of milky coffee.

CA glue may not always bond the wood to the tube (not able to fill all the gaps) but switching to gorilla glue seems to be working better for me.