I guess There's a first time for everything, but I have done them with & without a hole, and I must have been lucky, because I have never had a phenolic ferrule blow out, and I have installed many of them over the last 7 years or so. matter of fact I can't even remember having to replace one that I installed, although I have cut the radius off for customers in order to install a leather tip. About the only type of ferrules that I had crack or split happened after they had some playing time, they were titan and MP with the exception of 1 LBM ferule that cracked while tapping but I think that was due to me drilling the hole too small and the tap spreading it apart. For black one pieces I mostly used linen as opposed to canvas, but I would not think the weave type made a difference in that respect, as I used canvas in the tan color, and had no cracks with those either. With those types of one piece ferrules though I may use a 1/32 instead of a 1/16 when I were to drill for relief. I do use epoxy with those. Standard capped ferules with leather tips I have used both epoxy and Titebond, and It seems that any that had cracked were not the ones I used epoxy on, although one of them could have been, and I just don't remember now thinking back. Not saying that made it stronger because I really have no way of knowing that for sure other then speculation in thinking that epoxy may be stronger, and what I have seen with mine. That doesn't necessarily make It so though. That's a really high impact area, so there are several forces at work there as well as many variables.
I would not argue that just because something has not happened to me yet that It wouldn't or couldn't. Obviously that would not be true, and I know enough from seeing repair work over the years, that some things may be explainable, while others may not. keeping in Mind though... although I do not know why, I have not had many hard blowouts,The only One that I can remember being bad enough to actually see during or after an installation was on My 1st or 2nd cue, and that was during the pin installation. It was a snug fit, and I used 5 minute epoxy, so I guess I was afraid of It setting up too quickly, and went in with the pin too fast. I heard a crack, Thought to Myself wth was that, and was not sure what It was until I pulled the cue out of the lathe and saw a dark epoxy line where there was a crack on the side, located where the bottom of the pin was. I Only use slow set epoxy now for installing pins, not only for that reason, but several others too. It has not happened since.
Just a thought, but rpm's and/or type of tooling used could also play roll in problems relating to blowouts, not only the issue I mentioned about the tap, but getting some materials too hot may also weaken them and make them more brittle.
Greg
