On 10/11/2013 9:03 PM, Gramps' shop wrote:
I'm boring into some hard end grain using a pretty big forstner bit. This is on a lathe at a pretty low speed. Lot of smoke and heat with the first 1/4 inch, so I thought I'd stop and ask if I should lube the bit. I seem to recall seeing a demo where the guy used a light brush on of WD-40. The last thing I want to do is start a fire on the lathe.

Yes, I should be using gouges for hollowing, but I absolutely suck at this (although I anticipate improvement with practice).

Any thoughts?

Larry

Larry, you are probably not feeding fast enough #1,
try candle wax, at least if you light it, it will be a candle.;-)
no seriously, I use wax sometimes, but I find burning a result of not
feeding fast enough. I used to think my friend abused his tools as he
always pushed the things to the point of bogging down, but he never
burned anything, so there was something to his madness...
__Now that you have smoked the bit, take it out, sharpen it__, then try
again with more feed speed.

--
Jeff