CA experiment for "cracked glass" effect

[Quality Pen]

Here is an experiment that I did to help us all learn a little about CA and how it can get that "cracked glass" "mosaic" or whatever-you-wanna-call-it effect and how sunlight effects it. Not only are some people completely unaware that this happens, but as far as I've seen nobody really tested it and compared/contrasted different brands.

I'm sharing these results not because it is the end-all, be-all test, but more so to contribute to the body of knowledge that is CA and it's use for pens. In other words, I tried to account for variables but let's face it, this is real life .

METHOD: Anyways, I used the popular EZ Bond thick CA and applied it to a piece of the same wood and recorded my results after just about 60 days.

My four samples included:
Group A)

• CA with accel kept out of sunlight with no accelerant (Lefthand side of photo)
• CA with accel kept out of sunlight with accelerant

Group B)

• CA with accel kept in sunlight with no accelerant (Lefthand side of photo)
• CA with accel kept in of sunlight with accelerant

Group A was kept in my house -- no direct sunlight and constantly room temperature (~70 F +/-). Group B was kept in sunlight by placing it on the dashboard of my car. This gave it a steady dose of direct sunlight during peak hours of the day.

It's worth noting that this took place in Texas around now. It does get hot in Texas, but it's not summertime hot -- so I can't say that these blanks got to over 100 F ever (don't worry I am continuing this research if you are curious ). In fact, the climate these pens experienced got quite cold at times as it occasionally reaches high 30's F.

RESULTS: So, as you will see on the photos the left side of the wood is the "glob" of CA with no accelerant, and the glob on the right had accelerant. The top wood was Group A (no-sunlight) piece, and the bottom piece was Group B (outside piece).

Photo 2 is a close up of the accelerant portion of both pieces.

Photo 3 shows the baseline day 1 pieces.

It's worth pointing out that the results are consistent with what I've seen in pens however I never apply a single "glob" of CA on a pen. It did not seem to matter although I realize this thick application of CA is different than the "layering" technique we use when finishing a pen.

Conclusions: The non-accelerant has no cracked glass effect at all for the inside piece, but the outside piece had a single lined crack in it (top 1/5 horizontally in photo). Next, we can very clearly see that both the inside and the outside CA with accelerant pieces have the cracked glass effect.
Additionally, I tried to use a light colored wood to determine whether or not the CA has yellowed, but it is hard to gauge. There does seem to be a difference in the clarity/opacity but it is not significant after this amount of time.

Disclaimer: I don't sell CA glue

 

[jttheclockman]

Bob I commend you for your attempt at answering some long standing questions. But remind you there are so many other factors that go into a finish. I think it can be safely stated that any time you force a finish of any kind to cure faster than natural ways you take on a risk of failure. When you use accelerator you are surface drying the finish but it is not curing it. Now add sunlight or basically heat you are even further accelerating this effect because accelerator is basically doing a chemical reaction that creates heat. This same effect can be duplicated with Poly finishes. Because the layers lay on top of one another.

Add to the fact that if an accelerator that is not made for the CA formula used can produce such cracks. Also movement of wood is another factor. Different CA may react differently too. Wish you luck as you progress in your experiments.

 

[Jim15]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Quality Pen]

Bob I commend you for your attempt at answering some long standing questions. But remind you there are so many other factors that go into a finish. I think it can be safely stated that any time you force a finish of any kind to cure faster than natural ways you take on a risk of failure. When you use accelerator you are surface drying the finish but it is not curing it. Now add sunlight or basically heat you are even further accelerating this effect because accelerator is basically doing a chemical reaction that creates heat. This same effect can be duplicated with Poly finishes. Because the layers lay on top of one another.

Add to the fact that if an accelerator that is not made for the CA formula used can produce such cracks. Also movement of wood is another factor. Different CA may react differently too. Wish you luck as you progress in your experiments.

There are definitely a lot of variables I agree.

I don't think we should leave our pens in a car in cold or heat or sunlight... but what surprised me is that that did not matter for the cracked glass -- all that mattered was that there was accelerant or not.

As an aside, the cracked glass effect can look really cool and it can absolutely be used to your advantage to achieve perhaps otherwise impossible effects.

 

[robertkulp]

I took a different approach with a test I did a while back. I wanted to simulate a turned and finished pen and then subject it to some extremes. I was particularly interested to see the effect of moisture. The image was from a Facebook post.

Disclaimer: I do sell CA.

 

[Quality Pen]

I took a different approach with a test I did a while back. I wanted to simulate a turned and finished pen and then subject it to some extremes. I was particularly interested to see the effect of moisture. The image was from a Facebook post.

Disclaimer: I do sell CA.

Did you do any tests to determine yellowing or cracked glass effect?

For what it's worth, the CA used in my test does form a very solid protective and durable surface. It's just capable of taking on this mosaic appearance with the right conditions.

 

[Quality Pen]

I went back and looked to see what the temperature was for my outside group, and the range was 29 to 80 F. Keep in mind this was in a car so it definitely would be more humid and hot than if it were simply outside.