Son' First Pen (gray wood from soda can)

[tmhawk]

My son (computer artist, animation wizard,) asked me to teach him to turn a pen. He saw the segmented pens on this site using a soda can and decided his first pen would be segmented using aluminum. So he sawed a pen blank into thirds, we glued soda can strips between the 3 wood segments and he began turning. We used a piece of scrap oak since this was an experiment. While he was turning we noticed that the wood was getting gray, seemed to be coming from the soda cans. Same thing happened when he sanded it, grayish black. When we buffed it with tripoli and white diamond the buffing wheels got quite black from the soda can segments. He has drawn up more ideas for pens, quite creative and wants to do more segmenting. Question: is there a way to use aluminum soda cans and avoid the gray-black. Or is this technique best done on darker type wood?
Thanks for your help.

 

[tmhawk]

over 140 ppl have looked at this post. can I please get some help here, please

Thanks

 

[Buzz]

Tony, I would think that you need to clean the blank thoroughly to remove the metal dust (from the metal segments) prior to applying your finish. This would be a similar problem to pulling metal dust into timber blanks off the bushings if not being particularly careful.

I would suggest using what you call Denatured Alcohol in the US (I think that spelling is correct) or compressed air.

Hope this helps.

 

[badger]

Was it an open pored oak? or a tight grain? If it was open porous type wood, maybe the filings are getting into there? I've also seen graying of whitish woods from my Bushings. I've learned to sand in one direction in those situations, away from the wood so the gray doesn't show.

 

[leehljp]

I have used aluminum and have not had problems with it. I use my chisel to get the blank round, then turn the immediate area around the aluminum (or brass) down close to the finished size. Then go back to bringing the wood down to the aluminum. It always helps me to turn the aluminum area first and then the wood.

Next I use thin CA to seal it and start sanding lightly, seal again and sand more. This does seal out some of the aluminum.

 

[monkeynutz]

Metallic discoloration of lighter colored woods is a fact of life. It often happens when sanding on the lathe and not being careful to stay away from the bushings as much as possible. With aluminum stock between your pen segments, you are going to get some of it, for sure. About all you can do is hand sand the finished turning gently, trying to avoid the seams where you can. Then put on some sanding sealer, and re-sand to get out any roughness. Also, try to keep the aluminum strips as close to their finished size as you can, from the get-go. No point in providing more fuel to the problem than you have to. Use a sharp skew when turning, rather than a scraping-type instrument. Yes, darker wood usually shows less of this discoloration.

 

[alamocdc]

Like Hank, I haven't had a problem here either and I do use open grained woods like oak. So I'm sorry, but I'm at a loss for how to help.

 

[Fangar]

Tony,

This is often an issue and seems to become harder to work through, with various woods. I would recommend using some DNA to clean the blank completely and often. Prior to the sanding phase, I would recommend a good sanding sealer or even better, thin CA to seal the pores of the wood. This will allow the aluminum dust to be easily removed from the blanks.

Also, woods like Bolivian Rosewood, Cocobolo and others with very dense tight grains might be the way to go.

Hope that helps.

Fangar

 

[alamocdc]

Tony, I just thought of something else. When I was first getting started, I was using the black or dark gray sandpaper I'd get at Lowe's, etc. This sandpaper did cause problems like you describe, and I wasn't even using aluminum back then. Once I moved to MM and sandpaper from Klingspor the problem went away.

 

[tmhawk]

Thank you VERY MUCH for all the great advice. Your ideas and advice are just what my son and I were looking for. All really great ideas. We will put them into practice on our next segmented pen. Now he wants to do more intricate like the curving lines and the Celtic knots, ah youth. Again, you all are GREAT, lots of practical experience and wonderful solutions.
Thank you very much.

 

[leehljp]

I did the same thing that Billy B. did. It has been so long ago that I forgot about that. Dark colored sandpapers will often exaggerate the problem.

 

[ldb2000]

one more thing to try is to blow the metal dust away with a shot of good dry compressed air...a can of dust off works but a compressor works best ... I found that DNA and acetone sometimes seems to just smush the dust deeper into the grain .
Then seal the blank with thin ca and then start sanding .
This also works with two or more color segmenting to keep the colors separate.