Help needed to fix some scrolled blanks

[Reece]

Hey all,

I bought a couple of scrolled blanks from Exotic Blanks a while ago, but didn't get around to turning them until recently. When I did turn them, I found some pretty big air bubbles in them. Unfortunately I'm well outside of the 7 day return time, so fixing them is my best option.

Does anyone have any ideas about how I could fix these to make them look like there was never a bubble? I have CA and epoxy glues, clear casting resin and Resinsaver moulds, and the tools to turn any blank into dust if that dust is required.

Thanks in anticipation

 

[Larry in Harrow]

Hi Reese,

I would attempt to fill the air bubble in the flame by first washing the sandings out with accelerator then filling with a drop of medium CA.
The other is a different story. I don't cast so don't have the resources to colour match opaques.
I had a bubble problem with one of Dawn's great blanks and asked Ed for advise on repair and darned if he didn't just send me a replacement. Great people, I suspect they can help you.
Good luck.

 

[workinforwood]

Clean the pin hole in the flame and put a drop of Med CA in the hole. That'll fix that no problem. The other blank, is not going to be fixable, that air hole is too deep. Pin holes like you have in the flame blank are rare, but not unusual. The hole is so shallow and the flames are so busy, the drop of CA will fix it and you won't be able to tell. I will tell Dawn to refund you the money for the other blank. I would replace it free, but you are in Australia, so a refund is the only feasible option. Sorry about the big bubble..normally if there even is a bubble, it's just pin size, but either way, casting can be unpredictable and you can't see inside of a blank to know if there might be a problem. I can definitely see how a waterspout could trap a chunk of air too large to crush. Although I've cast many hundreds of blanks, I'm still learning about how to tackle certain types of designs.

 

[workinforwood]

Oh...btw, nice work drilling and spinning on those blanks. They look very nicely centered on your tubes. If you get some 5 min epoxy and add a little blue dye, you can pack that hole and save that blank. We are still going to refund it, because you shouldn't have to do that much work to it and you won't get a perfect color match, but I'm just saying you can still save it and make it look reasonably good.

 

[gketell]

Awesome customer service Jeff!

 

[workinforwood]

Yes, well the sales policies at Exotics make perfect sense, but they do not apply to this particular type of situation. Those policies would be so that you don't spend a bunch of money and then 2 months later decide you didn't need all that stuff and now you expect the vendor to buy it back. Also...I don't know if it's policy, but I believe in "you break it, you buy it". This is clearly not a case of that happening. This is a true defect in the blank itself, and although it is not my fault it is there, it is still my responsibility to stand behind what I sell. I expect that not every blank will be perfect, and would hope that a customer would tell me and SHOW me if there is a defect so that I can make it right. I check my email regularly and welcome feedback and problems of any kind. But...lets be reasonable too. A tiny pinhole like above becomes invisible with a drop of CA. If you purchase a blank and it has a defect, but you contact me a year or two after the fact..well that's not reasonable either. Thank you for your business Reese.

 

[Padre]

As Greg said Jeff, awesome customer service.

I do believe that if you put some blue/white dye, swirl it in a one ounce cup with a little activated pr or alumilite, use a toothpick or skewer stick to drip it in the bubble hole you could save that first blank.

 

[Reece]

Wow, thanks Jeff, that's awesome.

I'll give the med CA a go this afternoon and hopefully i'll have some results to show you. I quite like the flame blank, so it'll be great to get it fixed. The thing I really love about it is that the black part around the flames is slightly see through. I deliberately didn't paint the tubes or the inside of the hole. The flames now have a 3D look, and the area around them has a 'heat haze' sort of look.

Thanks again Jeff, it's actions like this that make the IAP and penturning community such a great place.

 

[ssajn]

I was going to suggest the same thing as Chip but instead of pr or alumilite just use epoxy

 

[Drstrangefart]

I have fixed some air bubbles and small chipouts by filling with medium CA, when it's dry use an ultra-fine tip Sharpie to dye it to get as much of a color match as possible, touch it with thin, let it dry, dye it again, then finish the pen. May not work in this case, but it has minimized damages almost totally off the radar on a few.