Little scratches with CA

[Math2010]

Hi,
I made like 20 pens without problems, but now, the finish is full of little scratches.
I use EZ Bond CA with accelerator (4 thin coats and 4 medium coats). After, dry MM (I read on that forum that it's a personnal choice to use dry vs wet sanding) and I finish with one Plastx coat. The 20 first pens were fantastic. But now... We have to look under a lamp, but that's a lot of scratches. Maybe my MM needs to be washed? Or changed? They are more white then the original colour... But I read that people are making like 100 pens before changing them.

Thank you

 

[Charlie_W]

One guess is that you are experiencing grit contamination. Grit from the course mm pads getting commingled with the finer pads. Since you are sanding dry, you may have some grit still on the blank when going to finer grits as well as contamination from having the pads stacked together or in a bag together.
I would wash the pads, keep them all separate and wipe the blank with a damp paper towel between grits. I prefer wet sanding with the pads.
You may try buffing after the plastic polish with compound for plastics/acrylics and then a clean wheel.

 

[TonyL]

When I used MM (wet), if I saw scratches under 10x magnification, I considered it time to change my MM. I am sure I discarded plenty of MM before its useful life, but that is just what happened to work for me. I also cleaned my MM with warm running water and a toothbrush after ever use. The most I ever got out of MM was about 50 barrels.

There are dozens of reasons as to why you are seeing scratches. I have also used (and still do sometimes) EZ Bond and everything in between through Mercury Adhesives flex lines CA. I have not experienced any one being easier or more difficult to remove scratches.

Most importantly, remember that the above is merely my experience. They are many, many turners out there that achieve fantastic results with older MM and no MM. This is just what my experience has been.

Meguiars 105 is a very aggressive product that does a good job removing scratches. I follow it with their 205 product, and then Rejex synthetic wax. I rarely use any of the above since employing a 4 stage buffing wheel.

Enjoy the experimenting. You will definitely find the right process and receive excellent advice from other members here.

 

[terry q]

I had problems with finish cracking using old CA. Now I toss anything older than 6 months.

 

[JimB]

Another possibility is that the scratches were always there from the beginning and when you started your sanding/micro mesh process you never removed them with the first step. They were deep enough that they never went away but were less noticeable with each step.

From the 'white' description of your MM it is probably contamination. You need to keep it clean and also wipe down your blank after each pad.

How long your MM lasts will vary greatly from person to person depending on how much you use it and how you use it. Someone who is very good at applying a CA finish will only need to sand lightly with each pad while the less experienced will need to spend more time with each pad wearing it down more quickly.

 

[Math2010]

Finally, I washed with an old tooth brush my MM and no scratches at all. I think you were right with the "contamination"