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).
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"woodchucker" wrote:


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.
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SFWIW

Cerritos college, in their WMT courses teach to feed forstner bits as
fast as possible to prevent heat build up and resultant burning.

It works for me.

Lew