Doug, there are quite a few things that help when using aluminium or brass. Make sure you abrade the aluminium so that the adhesive has a keyed area to help with adhesion. When drilling it is imperative that your bits are sharp, if you are not using a split point bit then always use a small bit to drill through the metal first. Don't be tempted to drill straight through, it will create to much heat and the joints will fail or you will weaken them so that they will fail when turning. Use progressively bigger bits to drill until you are at the correct size, do not rush it, you will create to much heat.
When turning square to round use a sharp skew if you can, again be careful of generating heat. Once round if you have a round carbide tipped tool use that or a skew, I always turn at 1500 or higher once it is round, but keep checking the heat of the metal. I use thin CA, I have tried medium and epoxy, but I don't like the epoxy as it is so messy.
Peter
