Confessions of a poor CA finish applier

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aggromere

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Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Messages
1,385
Location
Tampa, FL
I have been doing CA finishes for at least a year now and have had no issue until recently. I think because I have to go so thick with the number of coats to cover the cigar band I have had some issues with voids or pockets in the CA at the edges of the cigar band. My method had always been to use thin CA only with a little BLO on the papertowel and it usually works well. My goal was to have a finish that needed no sanding, just polishing. I applied the finish with the lathe spinning fast (2,500 or so). I know that a lot of people suggested turning at a slower speed to apply CA, but mine system was working well so I never tried it.

Recently on a particular pen I was having some difficulty, I had to build the pen up a good bit with the CA. It was going to take 50 or more coats of thin CA. It was on a closed end mandrel on my metal lathe. I dialed back the speed to about 600 or 700 and tried to put some medium CA on it to speed up the process of building it up. Well it worked great. Much better than what I was doing. In the end I had to micro mesh the finish to 12,000 and it looked much better than the pens I had made before. I have also tried applying the Ca without the BLO and found that works well too. Although I can't tell the difference once I'm finished with the pen. So now this is what I do:

1. I rub BLO onto the pen to bring out the grain and remove the excess with a papertowel.

2. I do three coats of thin at the slow speed spreading it over the entire pen. If it's not smooth that's okay (at least for me)

3. I then do from 5 to 20 coats of medium in the same fashion to get the coverage I need on the cigar label. I let it spin a minute or two between coats because sometimes it is not completely dry. I don't use accelerator. I also used to apply a lot of pressure when applying the CA, now I do it more gently with the goal of getting the pen covered, rather than smooth. Although it is still mostly smooth. I try now to apply just enough pressure on the first pass of applying the CA to barely touch the papertowel so I can transfer as much of the CA to the pen as possible and then increase the pressure, but still use a light touch.

4. Once I get all the coats on the pen, I set it aside for an hour or so, while I do something else.

5. I put it back on the lathe and using very wet MM (helps to create a slurry) I sand a good bit with the 1,500 grit till I get it completely smooth with no ridges or bumps.

6. I then MM on down to 12,000, wipe the pen off very good with a papertowel and then polish with a final finish product I got from cue components. If I have a pen that has a small low spot near the band that I can't seem to fill with CA, I leave off the polishing step because I find the polish compount sticks in the low spot.

Anyway, that's what I do now. It's another case of doing something the same way for a long time thinking it was working just fine (which it was) and using the tips from the forums and changing the process only to find it far superior to what I was doing.

Eventhough I now have the sanding step, I am able to make the pen in about the same time or slightly more because I don't have to use so many coats of thin CA.

So thanks to everyone that posted hints.

I also, had Johnny CNC make me some special bushings that fit on the shaft of the sanding mills I use from RHerrell and Bigshed and now sand with 120 or 240 grit each end of all my barrels.

These two things have really helped improve my pen making.

For those of you having a hard time with the CA you might try some of these things if they make sense to you. Oh, I also use glue from Monty. It works much better than the store bought kind, at least for me.
 
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workinforwood

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Joined
Mar 1, 2007
Messages
8,173
Location
Eaton Rapids, Michigan, USA.
5-20 coat of medium CA, even over a cigar label, seems excessive. Back when I used to have issues with a CA finish, in the end it all came down to run-out. First thing was tossing out the mandrel. Second was to always check the alignment of my tailstock. Third thing was to apply and finish my pens directly between centers. I do not use BLO either..I do not understand why a coat of oil would be applied in between a layer of plastic.

I put 1 coat of thin CA. I do 4 coats of medium..quick shot of accel between each coat. I use dry 220 paper and sand the length of the pen to remove any ridges that might have happened. You can instantly tell when the ridges are gone, because there are not shiny spots. Then I fire up the lathe on high speed. 320 wet, then MM pads wet, then plastic polish. Done.
 

Shannon

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Joined
Jun 28, 2010
Messages
37
Since my lathe requires a belt change, I run everything FAST. Turning / sanding / finishing.
 

PenMan1

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Joined
Jul 8, 2009
Messages
6,380
Location
Eatonton, Georgia
My CA finish technique closely mirrors yours, EXCEPT that I wipe the blanks with CA accelerator instead of BLO. Whin I use BLO with Cocobolo, BOW or other oily woods, I find that I get "ghosting" in the finish. The change from BLO to CA accelerator has eliminated the ghosts.

Additionally, I have finially tossed the first three coats of thin CA and use only about 10 -20 coats of medium CA (I undercut the blanks slightly and build back up to perfect diminsions with CA). I run the lathe as fast as I can without slinging CA onto my smock (usually about 2500 -3000) rpms.

Also, I only use Monty's glue and I use JohnnyCNC's eliminator finsh bushings. I use VERY, VERY , VERY wet MM to 12,000 then two coats of Novus 2 followed by two coats of PlastX.

This works well for me, your milage may vary.
 

maxwell_smart007

Lead Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
6,705
Location
middle of nowhere in the great, white North
Since Andy posted above me, I'm going to steal his tagline and use it! :)
entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem - Do not multiply problems more than necessary

If you have low spots and are having to use dozens of coats of thin or medium, and are still getting low spots, try using thick, perhaps...
 

workinforwood

Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2007
Messages
8,173
Location
Eaton Rapids, Michigan, USA.
I apply CA at slow speed of course. i don't want CA on the walls or in my eyes! I wet sand at higher speed. I put a towel over the bed of the lathe of course..but the wall behind the lathe is building up quite an ugly mess of multi colored plastic dust from when some sanding slurry fly's off and lands there. You can't wash that off either..probably will have to power sand the wall down at some point.
 

KnightFlag

Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2009
Messages
6
Location
Central Florida
The wall behind my lathe was looking like someone flung paintbrushes against it. I put a junk piece of board behind it to catch the mess. It works well and can be tossed later. Of course I still need to find a way to restore the wall to how it looked before I moved the lathe there ....
 

gawdelpus

Passed Away May 11, 2015
In Memoriam
Joined
Jan 10, 2009
Messages
183
Location
Gold coast AU
The wall behind my lathe was looking like someone flung paintbrushes against it. I put a junk piece of board behind it to catch the mess. It works well and can be tossed later. Of course I still need to find a way to restore the wall to how it looked before I moved the lathe there ....
Just a suggestion ,try entering your ca masterpieces in the local "Art show" hehe might get a better price than for a pen lol. Cheers ~ John :)
 
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