Does Tru-stone need tubes painted???

[Timbo]

I'm turning some Jr. Gents I tonight, and will be using Tru-stone for the first time. Can you veterans tell me if it's opaque enough that I don't need to worry about painting the hole or tubes? Thanks.

Also, I do my final polishing on a spare lathe using red rouge, then white diamond wheels. Will this method work with Tru-stone, or is another method preferred? My blanks have metal veining so I'll pick up some dedicated wheels to keep my old faithfuls from turning black. Thanks.

Tim

 

[Rick_G]

I've only done 3 different ones painting was not required.

 

[Jim Smith]

As a rule, I always paint the tubes and inside the blanks for any non-wood blank, including Tru-Stone. That being said, Tru-Stone is very opaque and they probably don't need to be painted except some of the very light colors. I simply MM to 12,000 and add a coat of Ren Wax. All the Tru-Stones I;ve turned polish up very nicely.

Jim Smith

 

[SteveG]

Two that I know of needing painting are Mexican Agate and tortoise shell.

 

[keithware]

I have only turned two, including one white w/Gold matrix. I didn't paint on either of them and you can't tell. Ditto on the MM 12000 followed by Ren Wax. They turn out beautifully.

 

[Timbo]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I really hate painting tubes anyway.

 

[chriselle]

I'd paint the tubes white if you are using pink coral.

 

[wizard]

I've done about 25 to 30 of them and I agree with Chris above. The only Tru-stone I didn't want to chances with was the pink coral and painted the tubes white.

 

[Sylvanite]

I've also seen color bleed-through with persian turquoise tru-stone.

Regards,
Eric

 

[randbcrafts]

All 4 colors of Mother of Pearl, Mexican Agate, Tortoise, and Tigereye all should have the tubes painted. Any of the others, unless you are turning it paper thin, are opaque enough that the tubes won't show through.

 

[ed4copies]

All 4 colors of Mother of Pearl, Mexican Agate, Tortoise, and Tigereye all should have the tubes painted. Any of the others, unless you are turning it paper thin, are opaque enough that the tubes won't show through.

Although these products come from the company that makes Tru-Stone, they are actually closer to the nature of an acrylic or resin. So, whether you are purchasing from Exotics or R&B, the tru-stone product line has expanded to include products that are NOT stone.

Just to be clear-these products can be quite translucent.

 

[Muggsy1776]

I'm currently working my way through a tru-stone Dino Bone blank and there is absolutely no need to paint the tubes. The only difficult part i'm having to actually turning the blank- it's so hard that it's dulling my tools fairly quickly. I got about half way through and set it aside for a while. Did I mention it's hard? I'm going in with sharp tools, even stopping at points to re-sharpen and go back, and i'm still having a time with it.