Perilous adventures with Dymondwood

[Big Shed]

Having finished (finally) my pen for the pen swap, I decided to have a play
with the blanks I bought at Carbatec for theprincely sum of $0.50 each (twice
as much some on this forum!)

Not having turned anything but wood, and not too much of that, I didn't know
what to expect.

I thought it might be good practice for when I start turning the acrylic pens
for my granddaughters wedding (30/3), but am still waiting for some white and
black blanks I ordered from Craft Supplies a few days ago.

So, got out a not very attractive looking blank, sort of a muddy blue, wonder
why I bought it, must have been cheap!

Decide to use some spare Sierra tubes that came with my last order from Bear
Tooth Woods, so needed to drill a 27/64" hole (about 10.7mm).

Got out my trusty centre punch to mark the centre starting point...........

Strike 1 (Picture 1), cut to length blank split in half with just a gentle tap
on the centre punch. Hmmmm........this stuff doesn't behave like wood at all
(wonder whether acrylic will do the same thing?)

So, use the other half of the blank, don't use the centre punch, boy this
stuff is pretty hard to drill.

Oops (Picture 2), 3/4 down the blank it splits again.


Obviously need to go slower and clear the hole more often than you do with
wood.

OK, try another colour, this time a muddy brown, very uninspiring....

Easy does it, eureka got it drilled, do anothe blue one, yep got the hang of
it.

Glue tubes in, used 5 min epoxy, let it dry overnight, belts and braces and
all that.

Back at the lathe this afternoon, start turning the muddy brown one. First
used 15mm gouge to knock it into a sort of round shape, boy this stuff is
hard!

The on to the skw chisel (15mm), had to sharpen it twice before I was almost
finished, should have sharpened it again (thank gawd for the Triton Wet
Grinder!), didn't and just pushed a bit harder.

Oops, two chips came out of the edge nect to the bushing, bugger.
(Picture 3)

Tried to repair with CA and some shavings/dust, but wouldn't stay in.
Decided to finsh it off anyway to see how it would polish up. As you can see
in picture 3, this stuff polishes beautifully, EEE only on that, done on the
lathe (fingers get a bit warm but!)
Muddy colour all gone, looks almost like an expensive wood blank.
(picture 4)

OK, try one of the muddy blue ones
This time sharpened the skew more often, and we have success!

Went through the same sanding routine as on the brown one (320 al oxide dry,
400 wet&dry used dry, then 800 wd, 1200 finally 2000 wd and lastly 0000 steel
wool).
This gave quite a good result, just needing a polish.

As I now knew the EEE would do the job, wanted to try the polishing kit I
bought at Carbatec at the same time as the blanks. It has 3 x 4" mops and some
polishing compound, finest is white diamond.(picture 5)

So put the mop on the lathe (picture 6) and at fairly high speed applied some
white diamond compound, quick polish whilst the blank was still on the mandrel
(along the length of the blank) and it came up very nicely (picture 7).

All in all not a bad afternoon's learning session.

[PenTurner]

Yes Fred, as with my Dymondwood, 2nd time round I used water to cool the drill as I went. nicely done , Amos

[Big Shed]

Amos, some questions, (so much to learn!)

How do you apply the water while you drill, spray bottle?

Do you apply water when you drill acrylic or TruStone?

Fred

[artme]

Some lessons for all here Fred.

[PenTurner]

Fred, I have put some old clothes at the feet of the drill press, I drill say 1/4" and with a bottle with longer neck pour water on the bit and let it fill the hole, then I dip the drill into the hole, then drill another 1/4 to 1/2" and pour water ovet the bit and into the hole and fill it up, immediately dip the tip in to cool it and away I go repeating until I am right through. When I am right through, I stick the blank out the window and run some water through it and blow it out, set it a aside to dry. Meanwhile there is a very messy drill press to clean. Amos

[Big Shed]

Thanks Amos, even though it sounds messy will give that a try.

[Simomatra]

Fred I used either a sauce bottle or the empty bottle the wife uses to dye her hair. Fill with water and run the ater onto the drill bit while drilling. I use this with the acrylics and the gem stone. I also use this method when wet sanding and polishing

As Amos says you need some way of controlling the water waste.

[Matt88s]

Someone once told me they used alcohol, "rubbing alcohol" or the like, not drinking alcohol and sprayed it on the bit as they drilled.

The theory is that the rapidly evaporating alcohol disperses the heat faster and more effectively than plain water.

I haven't tried it yet but it sounds good in theory.

[corbs]

I use a 5ml syringe and put a couple of drops in the hole each pass. Doesn't make too much mess and keeps the acrylic from getting too hot. Easy to hold the syringe in the left hand while the right runs the press (I use a cross slide vise to hold my blanks). The blank with the chip on it could still be used. You should be able to cover it with the pen clip.

Corbs

[funkychicken]

Interesting looking stuff


Whaddya think of the polishing set? Would they be good for tool sharpening on a bench grinder?

[Big Shed]

Interesting looking stuff


Whaddya think of the polishing set? Would they be good for tool sharpening on a bench grinder?

The other 2 mops are harder and for coarser polishing of metal, perhaps they would be, don't really know.

[petersemple]

For drilling acrylic I slow the drill down a bit. Every centimeter or so I withdraw the bit and hold a wet rag against it for a few seconds. That will get me through 1 blank. The time it takes to reomove one blank from the drill press and clamp the next one in helps the bit cool, and I go again. I must admit I only usually do 2 or 3 blanks with the same bit using this method - it does get gradually hotter, so it wouldn't work where you were doing a large number. If you use a pen kit with the barrels a different size you can do enough for 3 pens or so without much problem like this - and no mess to clean up.

Peter

[Big Shed]

Have just drilled my first 4 acrylic blanks, decided to use metho instead of water, evaporates a bit quicker and doesn't cause corrosion on the drill press/vise.

This worked like a charm, drill didn't get hot at all, just put a bit in the hole every time I brought the drill bit up.

Used one of those squeeze mayonnaise bottles, but will have to look for one of the plastic laboratory bottles with a fine angled spout.

Blank is ready for gluing as soon as drilling is finished.

[SWR]

Many thanks to Amos & Fred here for this dymondwood learning sampler...I have 100 of these blanks that I bought from Carbatec (at 25c per blank) and whilst I figure I can ruin a few and still be in front, the advice here will be invaluable once I start playing with it.

I guess the only drawback in buying (relatively) late in the piece is that I bought 100 blanks...but only got 4 variations....the muddy two toned brown as above, a two tone blue, a multi coloured rainbow style dark blank and a multi coloured lighter coloured wood with some of them angle cut...

Still way in front compared to "real" wood but I didn't figure into the picture all of the sharpening that I will be doing for one pen....D'oH!!!

When I am doing acrylics I sharpen my small skew once every five or 6 pens...so two or three times during one pen will be painful but Cest' La Vie!!!

Once again thanks to those trailblazers on the forum playing with the dymondwood and giving us your benefits and insights.


Cheers,


Scott in Peakhurst.

[ss_11000]

only just found this site again - it was buried in my favouritesHighly reccomended you read thru it

http://woodnwhimsies.com/dwood_%20info.htm

Have just drilled my first 4 acrylic blanks, decided to use metho instead of water, evaporates a bit quicker and doesn't cause corrosion on the drill press/vise.

This worked like a charm, drill didn't get hot at all, just put a bit in the hole every time I brought the drill bit up.

Used one of those squeeze mayonnaise bottles, but will have to look for one of the plastic laboratory bottles with a fine angled spout.

Blank is ready for gluing as soon as drilling is finished.

the only time i have tried cooling down the drill bit, i melted an acrylic blank onto my drill bit and couldnt remove it. - too much water got into the half drilled hole and this boiled up when the drill went another inch or so and the acrylic boiled and stuck to the drill bit (some how it rapidly cooled down to solidify again )...how it happened sure beats me.

anyway, i'll give the metho a try...thanx for the tip

btw, the diamond wood came up a treat