Synthetics hard to drill

[Woodchipper]

I'm using the term as a generic for synthetic blanks. I drilled a few today and found one synthetic was easy to drill. Bit on lathe went in like a hot knife through warm butter. Another blank was a different story as it took longer to advance the bit. For them, I only drilled partway, withdrew to clean off the bit and blow out the hole. I'm sure that there are differences in synthetics due to hardness. Your experience?

 

[sorcerertd]

They are definitely different. Inlace acrylester chips really easily, but polishes up beautifully. Alumilite cuts and drills beautifully, but doesn't hold quite as good a polish (which is why I use CA on those). There's definitely some in-betweens, but by far, the toughest one I've drilled was a micarta blank. That was with a good sharpening on the drill dr. first, too. I ended up going up a size in the bit to get the blank to even slip in, because using a round file was getting me nowhere trying to widen the hole a little. That one has been glued and trimmed and waiting to be turned for probably 6 weeks. I'm sure that's going to take some finesse and a sharp edge (probably carbide).

 

[howsitwork]

Like hybrid wood/ resin blanks some are much easier to drill than others without overheating or chipping , especially on drill exit from the blank. ALL benefit from having a wood spacer to drill out into below or behind the blank.