CA BLO fogging in spots.

[programmergeek]

Ok I am making a pen out of a red wood maybe paduck, not sure but didn't seem quite as hard. Anyhow in finishing I am getting big foggy/dull spots. I have stripped it 3-4 times used dna, accelerator to clean it and got most of the red color out, a sanding/grain sealer, no matter what I do I get dull spots in my finish. It looks ok when on the lath but the shine is not great and you can start to see the dull spots but what is worse is when I try to use a plastic polish on it, it only makes the dull spots worse and the other areas more shiny it is like the CA is not dry. Is that possible?


Totally frustrated here all I want to do is make a pen for my wife and I have been trying to finish it for the past 5 hours.



I searched and I found refrences to ghosting is this what is happing? It is like the finish will not shine up. I have tried 2 totally different med ca bottles so I am pretty sure it is not the CA. Same BLO thought.

 

[johnnycnc]

Ok I am making a pen out of a red wood maybe paduck, not sure but didn't seem quite as hard. Anyhow in finishing I am getting big foggy/dull spots. I have stripped it 3-4 times used dna, accelerator to clean it and got most of the red color out, a sanding/grain sealer, no matter what I do I get dull spots in my finish. It looks ok when on the lath but the shine is not great and you can start to see the dull spots but what is worse is when I try to use a plastic polish on it, it only makes the dull spots worse and the other areas more shiny it is like the CA is not dry. Is that possible?


Totally frustrated here all I want to do is make a pen for my wife and I have been trying to finish it for the past 5 hours.



I searched and I found refrences to ghosting is this what is happing? It is like the finish will not shine up. I have tried 2 totally different med ca bottles so I am pretty sure it is not the CA. Same BLO thought.

If it is redwood, like some I had, it will suck up finish to kingdom come.
Well almost! Could be a too-thin finish coat.
If you are polishing and the dull spots are getting worse it sounds to me like you may be cutting thru the finish. I have had this happen, and my cause was too thin of finish coat, and unround blanks with untrue surfaces..
the high spots on the out of round blank get hit hardest with sandpaper, and even the polish on a towel; thus, dull spots.You can cut right thru a thin finish in less time than it takes to read this sentence.
If it is fogging, that is an entirely different matter. it will look like condensation underneath the ca glue.you might try skipping the BLO,
it has caused me some issues.But not consistently!
you say the polish makes the dull spots worse, so my guess is thin finish.
You could try to use a block of homemade variety with sandpaper,
to level the blanks out.i have done this with some sucess in the past.
It gets the lumpy bumpy's out.
hope this was some help.

 

[pensbymdsmith]

Your using too much oil with the CA. Use no more than three drops of BLO for the hole pen.

 

[programmergeek]

That could be it to much blo.
Stripped it 2 more times finally got a perfect finish assembled it, gave it to the wife she was happy till she noticed a crack

must of cracked during assembly, this pen was just not ment to be.

 

[leehljp]

One thing consistent in many cases of fogging is the use of DNA several minutes prior to using CA. "Dull" on the other hand is often associated with sanding through in spots. The pen with be shiny for a while and suddenly have the dull spots. The coating is so thin that it wipes off/rubbs off after a few minutes to a few hours or days.

 

[Dvoigt]

This is me on half the pens I make. I get alot of either cloudy or dull and require alot of extra finishing. I don't use DNA, I stopped using EEE because I thought that might be part of the problem, and I don't use BLO all the time, so there is no consistant pattern there.

Every day I try to remember that finishing is more art less science.

 

[leehljp]

Every day I try to remember that finishing is more art less science.

You got that right! :biggrin:

 

[RussFairfield]

A Rule of Thumb that you can use is - Cloudy white finishes are caused by moisture, and dull finishes are caused by oil. "Foggy" is just a lighter shade of "cloudy".

I suspect the wood wasn't as dry as you thought, and the several cycles of sanding and refinishing gave it time to dry enough that you could finally get a good finish. The crack would be another clue that the wood wasn't dry..

 

[GouletPens]

Try using acetone instead of dna to clean the wood.....acetone evaporates almost immediately and won't cause you a lot of the problems of dna. I support the too-thin-of-a-coat theory, but pictures would help me to be able to really stand behind that. We all have pens like that.....remember....if everything goes right, then you're not learning anything. If you can really diagnose this pen and find out what went wrong, it will make you better on every other pen.

And finishing really is an art.