Marc
Member
Over the past several months, several of us have experienced issues with the CA finish crackling as it cured. Lots of us speculated various reasons for this, but there have been few definitive answers.
I work in a brick and mortar woodworking shop and asked our CA vendor about this issue and I wanted to share the response, hopefully there is an answer or two that might help us understand this issue.
"Two things cause the cracking:
One = putting on too thick of coats.
Two = old CA Finish – which also leads into item #1. Batch numbers: the first number represents the year 3 = 2013 and the next three number is the batch. This past year we had less than 400 total batches so you can get a quick idea of when… the smaller that number the closer to the beginning of the year. I tried to get the batch numbering system changed to a date but ISO 9000 does not allow that… I will try again to see if the rules have changed.
The problem is that the coat is not curing all the way through before putting on the next coat… when it eventually cures it shrinks slightly creating cracking under the final coat.
The older the CA Finish, the slower it cures – which is why the older material has problems.
This happens with older regular CA also but since we made the CA Finish slower to start with making it easier to apply the Finish becomes "Old" sooner – even though it looks ok. The Old CA Finish can still be used as an adhesive like CA but cures slower."
Hope this info helps.
Marc
I work in a brick and mortar woodworking shop and asked our CA vendor about this issue and I wanted to share the response, hopefully there is an answer or two that might help us understand this issue.
"Two things cause the cracking:
One = putting on too thick of coats.
Two = old CA Finish – which also leads into item #1. Batch numbers: the first number represents the year 3 = 2013 and the next three number is the batch. This past year we had less than 400 total batches so you can get a quick idea of when… the smaller that number the closer to the beginning of the year. I tried to get the batch numbering system changed to a date but ISO 9000 does not allow that… I will try again to see if the rules have changed.
The problem is that the coat is not curing all the way through before putting on the next coat… when it eventually cures it shrinks slightly creating cracking under the final coat.
The older the CA Finish, the slower it cures – which is why the older material has problems.
This happens with older regular CA also but since we made the CA Finish slower to start with making it easier to apply the Finish becomes "Old" sooner – even though it looks ok. The Old CA Finish can still be used as an adhesive like CA but cures slower."
Hope this info helps.
Marc