karlkuehn
Banned
I think I have my head wrapped around the process I use enough to share it with you.
I bought a quart of Minwax brushable lacquer from Home Depot for $10. I sand to 400 grit, and maybe a little with the first couple of micro mesh grits if I see that there's some chatoyance that can be brought out by polishing.
Once I have it sanded to where I like it, I remove the blanks from the lathe. I bought some 1/4" dowels from the local store and cut them into 10" lengths. I took a hunk of 3/4" ply and drilled a bunch of slightly hogged out, staggered 1/4" holes in it to accept the dowels to use as a drying rack so I can apply finish to multiple pens at the same time. Seems silly to keep opening the can for 35 seconds on every recoat, so I work in batches.
To apply the lacquer, I use those cheapy little 1" foam brushes, which seem to work great. I was in the local craft store a while back and they had them on sale for 15/$1, so I stocked up. I keep a box of cheap fold-top sandwich bags in the shop, and while I'm waiting between coats, I stuff the used sponge brush in one and seal with a rubber band around the top, which keeps it wet enough to use again. I think of the 45 brushes that I bought that day, I've used 4 in a month.
I just start brushing on the lacquer, thick as it will go without dripping...wait 30 seconds for it to tack over...do a second thick coat...wait 30 seconds for it to tack over...start catching a buzz from the fumes...and then do a third thick coat.
At this point, it's hanging on there pretty thick, and I'll rotate my dowel while blowing on it or standing in front of the fan to get it to tack over without drip swells. It's important, like the can says, to 'brush efficiently' because it tacks over so fast. You don't want to play with it, just get it on there thick and even on each coat, and be quick.
After the third coat, off to the drying rack it goes to be with its buddies, making sure that there's no drips. If so, just rotate the dowel 180 degrees, and it'll flow nicely.
So far, it seems that patience is the key with brushable lacquer. It's super easy to apply, but it's important to let it gas off totally before you start working with it. Working with furniture and such, I've always sprayed lacquer, and it's much thinner. This stuff is pretty thick in comparison, and putting 3 thick coats on at once makes it necessary to let it hang on the drying rack for a few days.
It really shrinks down as it dries, and if you try to sand too soon, it'll gum up. What starts out as something that looks like a thick plastic dip coat ends up being very hard and thin after a few days, and at this point, you'll see any open grain and little bumps in the gloss reflection.
After it has gassed off (I usually just smell it - if you can't smell the fumes, it should be good), I put it back on the lathe and run it through the sanding process again. I usually use dry sanding, being careful not to horse it too much. When dry sanding, sanding hard for a short time as opposed to sanding lightly for a little longer seems to put in those irritating little scratches that don't like to come out. I take it out to the third MM grit, making sure that all the high points are taken off.
Then, it's back to the three-quick-coat, three-day-dry process. Basically, repeat the above steps. Once I get to the third MM grit on the second finish application, I look really close at the finish and make sure all the grain is filled and that there is no 'texture' that will monkey with a nice final gloss reflection. If it's good enough, finish the MM gauntlet, do a plastic polish (I use swirl and scratch remover for cars), and final wax (I use the new-tech liquid polymer car waxes).
So far, I've noticed only one pen with problems after final build. About a week after I sanded it and it was perfect after the final wax, the finish continued drying and shrinking, and some grain showed up. Most of the time now, I just commit to nine coats, applied in three three-coat sessions.
Like I say, patience is key, and now that I've gotten used to the batch mentality, I just do six at a time and if you divide actual working time involved, the finish doesn't take long per pen.
In between batches and drying, I'm usually working on miscellaneous CA or shellac based finishes to get my daily pen assembly fix, but there's no substitute for a glass-like lacquer finish on any wood.
They sell satin and semi-gloss lacquer, too, but I've found that if you stop sanding at the MM4000 mark and apply a wax, you can get a duller finish if you want.
I'm going to try playing around with CA as a sealer/filler, using the process I read in one of the CA/BLO tutorials: Using sandpaper as a CA applicator with the lathe running. By holding the sandpaper on the bottom of the blank, the dust builds up on it, and then when you dribble CA over the top of the blank, it creates a slurry that fills the grain in, which you can then sand smooth right away when the CA cures. I bought some 400 grit wet/dry disposable paper the other day, as this process sounds like it might be a little hard on the micromesh after the first time. [
] I'm also not sure how the lacquer will react over a CA finish, so this is just a theory at this point, but it might pay off in that I'd only have to do one three-coat pass.
Hope this helps, and any suggestions about mistakes you see in my method are always welcome!
I bought a quart of Minwax brushable lacquer from Home Depot for $10. I sand to 400 grit, and maybe a little with the first couple of micro mesh grits if I see that there's some chatoyance that can be brought out by polishing.
Once I have it sanded to where I like it, I remove the blanks from the lathe. I bought some 1/4" dowels from the local store and cut them into 10" lengths. I took a hunk of 3/4" ply and drilled a bunch of slightly hogged out, staggered 1/4" holes in it to accept the dowels to use as a drying rack so I can apply finish to multiple pens at the same time. Seems silly to keep opening the can for 35 seconds on every recoat, so I work in batches.
To apply the lacquer, I use those cheapy little 1" foam brushes, which seem to work great. I was in the local craft store a while back and they had them on sale for 15/$1, so I stocked up. I keep a box of cheap fold-top sandwich bags in the shop, and while I'm waiting between coats, I stuff the used sponge brush in one and seal with a rubber band around the top, which keeps it wet enough to use again. I think of the 45 brushes that I bought that day, I've used 4 in a month.
I just start brushing on the lacquer, thick as it will go without dripping...wait 30 seconds for it to tack over...do a second thick coat...wait 30 seconds for it to tack over...start catching a buzz from the fumes...and then do a third thick coat.
At this point, it's hanging on there pretty thick, and I'll rotate my dowel while blowing on it or standing in front of the fan to get it to tack over without drip swells. It's important, like the can says, to 'brush efficiently' because it tacks over so fast. You don't want to play with it, just get it on there thick and even on each coat, and be quick.
After the third coat, off to the drying rack it goes to be with its buddies, making sure that there's no drips. If so, just rotate the dowel 180 degrees, and it'll flow nicely.
So far, it seems that patience is the key with brushable lacquer. It's super easy to apply, but it's important to let it gas off totally before you start working with it. Working with furniture and such, I've always sprayed lacquer, and it's much thinner. This stuff is pretty thick in comparison, and putting 3 thick coats on at once makes it necessary to let it hang on the drying rack for a few days.
It really shrinks down as it dries, and if you try to sand too soon, it'll gum up. What starts out as something that looks like a thick plastic dip coat ends up being very hard and thin after a few days, and at this point, you'll see any open grain and little bumps in the gloss reflection.
After it has gassed off (I usually just smell it - if you can't smell the fumes, it should be good), I put it back on the lathe and run it through the sanding process again. I usually use dry sanding, being careful not to horse it too much. When dry sanding, sanding hard for a short time as opposed to sanding lightly for a little longer seems to put in those irritating little scratches that don't like to come out. I take it out to the third MM grit, making sure that all the high points are taken off.
Then, it's back to the three-quick-coat, three-day-dry process. Basically, repeat the above steps. Once I get to the third MM grit on the second finish application, I look really close at the finish and make sure all the grain is filled and that there is no 'texture' that will monkey with a nice final gloss reflection. If it's good enough, finish the MM gauntlet, do a plastic polish (I use swirl and scratch remover for cars), and final wax (I use the new-tech liquid polymer car waxes).
So far, I've noticed only one pen with problems after final build. About a week after I sanded it and it was perfect after the final wax, the finish continued drying and shrinking, and some grain showed up. Most of the time now, I just commit to nine coats, applied in three three-coat sessions.
Like I say, patience is key, and now that I've gotten used to the batch mentality, I just do six at a time and if you divide actual working time involved, the finish doesn't take long per pen.
In between batches and drying, I'm usually working on miscellaneous CA or shellac based finishes to get my daily pen assembly fix, but there's no substitute for a glass-like lacquer finish on any wood.
They sell satin and semi-gloss lacquer, too, but I've found that if you stop sanding at the MM4000 mark and apply a wax, you can get a duller finish if you want.
I'm going to try playing around with CA as a sealer/filler, using the process I read in one of the CA/BLO tutorials: Using sandpaper as a CA applicator with the lathe running. By holding the sandpaper on the bottom of the blank, the dust builds up on it, and then when you dribble CA over the top of the blank, it creates a slurry that fills the grain in, which you can then sand smooth right away when the CA cures. I bought some 400 grit wet/dry disposable paper the other day, as this process sounds like it might be a little hard on the micromesh after the first time. [
] I'm also not sure how the lacquer will react over a CA finish, so this is just a theory at this point, but it might pay off in that I'd only have to do one three-coat pass.Hope this helps, and any suggestions about mistakes you see in my method are always welcome!
