Spalted wood find,,,,first turning

[stevers]

Hi Gang,
Here is the first piece turned from the batch of spalted/burled eucalyptus I found a couple of months ago. I had to stabilize it wit hCA as I turned it and I think it went pretty well. The only part that puzzles me is the spotty nature of the finished product. It has spots where the CA polished to a mirror shine and spots where it is sort of dull. I soaked the blank many times to try and get the CA all the way inside. Could this difference in the shine be because the CA soaked in better in some spots then others?
I also chipped the ends slightly when I took it off the mandrel. I tried to cut the bushings loose, but I still chipped it a little. It is an experimental turning anyway. It's the first of the wood find. There will be much more of it to play with.
One thing I found out tonight, now I know why so many of you like the CA finish. The spots that shined up nice are awesome looking. The best shine I have come up with on wood so far.
Anyway, what do you think? Oh, and why the spottiness?

 

[Nolan]

my guess is sanding through the CA down to the wood. Maybe the dull spots are the parts that were a little more solid so you got better penitration in the softer wood. Either way if you went through you didnt leave enough on to provide a "finish". I had that very thing happen alot when I was first doing CA finishes, found I was just over sanding. Hope this helps if that is actually the problem
Nolan

 

[Malainse]

I agree odds are a bit to much sanding.... Did you use DNA to clean the blank ?

The second thing I noticed is that Nolan posted his reply at 1:57 AM. New dad, must be his shift...[]

 

[Nolan]

Yah no sleep even when he does[]
Nolan

 

[johncrane]

from here it looks ok to me Steve! if you have used dna it may have gone in too the blank and not dried out enough before you used the ca, another way to clean the blank is to use
a air compressor and blow the saw dust/dirt moisture out. []

 

[stevers]

It was only 11:00 here, Arizona time. I thought maybe I over sanded. Also figured it may have had something to do with the diff sections of the blank. No BLO, had to use CA to stabilize from the beginning. I cut it as round as I could, then put it on the lathe.

 

[Tanner]

Great looking wood. You will have fun with it since you have more. With real soft punky wood, sometimes I'll have to put three or four thin layers of CA on until I don't see any dull spots, then on to the thick CA, then sanding, making sure I don't sand through to the dull spots.

 

[stevers]

OK, I tried it again. I took the blank down to 400 grit and reapplied the Finish. Before I did, I used a mixture of CA and fine dust from the blank to fill some of the larger holes and voids. I got all but a couple of very small holes. Then I sanded it back to shape and began to apply the CA. Thin layers with a paper towel. A hot light helped it to dry faster. About 10 minutes between coats. I applied about 10 coats. There was no clouding or whitening on the blank so I proceeded. After a half hour, it was dry enough to start sanding. The initial coating was a little ruff, so I started with 600 grit, wet sanding my way up to 12,000 MM. Then Hut plastics polish. And finally topped off with Ren wax. There is "still" a couple of small spots that refuse to shine like the rest. But the spots that shine, boy oh boy do they shine. I'll say it again, I could learn to like this CA finish. It looks like glass on the blank. I am impressed. The next one will be done with the BLO CA method. This one still wasn't done with BLO because it had CA on it from the beginning to keep it from flying apart.
Over all, I am very happy with the wood and with the CA finish.
I took a picture with it sitting on my desk to try and show the shine. It's hard to do in the light tent, with the whole idea being the elimination of shadows. So I used the flash and tried to make it reflect.

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