Newbie CA sucess

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rick_lindsey

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Joined
Feb 2, 2005
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125
Location
Tucson, AZ
Whee! It worked! Amazing how much better new thin CA works than old "thin" CA! I just sanded the barrels to 220, applied sanding sealer, sanded to MM3200, took the barrel off the short mandrel and replaced the Euro bushings with slimline bushings, and started applying CA at 1800RPM. I had my folded up paper towel held under the blank, wetted out the blank and started rubbing back and forth. Repeated until I felt like stopping (6 coats? maybe 8) and just let it spin a few minutes. Then I went at it with micromesh again up through 12000 (I lost my 3600 pad though so I skip from 3200 to 4000 or whatever the next one is). I sanded the end by hand with some 600 grit (sandpaper was flat on the table, pen barrel held perpendicular to table) to get rid of a little buildup on the end, and voila!

It's not the crazy high shine finish that I see on alot of other pens, but I rather like it. It's kind of "soft", and doesn't look plasticky at all. I may try lots more layers on the next one (it doesn't take long at all for each application) to see if I can get a deeper shine, but as I said before I'm quite pleased just the way it is.

If I can do it, anyone can!

-Rick
 
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areaman

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Aug 13, 2008
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361
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Ft Morgan Colo
Rick, glad it worked for you. My first one turned out great, second ok and now I cant seem to do it.....lol guess that's why they say practice.
 

rick_lindsey

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Feb 2, 2005
Messages
125
Location
Tucson, AZ
I'm glad I saw the "new way" with strictly thin CA, since when I was using "thin" CA that had thickened i had much worse luck -- I suspect it may have been similar if i had tried my thick stuff.

-Rick
 

ldb2000

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Sep 11, 2007
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5,381
Location
Laurence Harbor, NJ, USA.
Fantastic Rick . There really is no magic involved just practice and good CA . If you want a high shine you have to buff the finish with some kind of buffing compound like White Diamond or plastic polish . That will give you the shine you see here on the forums .
I use white diamond and a $15 buffing wheel set up for my drill press that I bought from HD but lots of people have great luck with Maguires car polish , not sure which one , or any of the plastic polishes you use on acrylics .
 

GouletPens

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Nov 9, 2008
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1,449
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Ashland, VA
I've recently become a CA convert myself. The first few I did looked great, then I had some amboyna burl that was cloudy, wasn't adhering properly, really drove me nuts. The step I was misssing was rubbing the wood with acetone before applying the CA. It seemed to help a ton (also cleans the wood). I have had only nice looking CA finishes since (at least until the wind blows a different direction:tongue:).
 

rick_lindsey

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Joined
Feb 2, 2005
Messages
125
Location
Tucson, AZ
I'd still like to try a rubbed lacquer, since I will hopefully not be in a hurry most of the time, but I figure more techniques is more better!

-Rick
 

rick_lindsey

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Joined
Feb 2, 2005
Messages
125
Location
Tucson, AZ
Yeah, I was lazy and didn't play the belt shifty game -- just left it at the same speed I was turning at (which was just a random speed in the middle btw, no particular reason I was turning at 1800).

-Rick
 

Skye

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Jan 3, 2006
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3,487
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Rock Hill, SC
Man, I didnt know the CA would stay on the blank at such speeds. Just wanted to make sure you weren't spraying it all over yourself.
 

rick_lindsey

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Joined
Feb 2, 2005
Messages
125
Location
Tucson, AZ
Yeah, different thicknesses might behave differently though. I was using brand-new thin CA, and it wicked onto the blank pretty quickly, a thicker layer of med or thick might go flying? I dunno, haven't tried it yet :). At this point I might not bother trying medium or thick since the thin stuf seems to be doing the trick (and I have a 2oz bottle of it to use up before it starts to get old!).

FWIW it didn't go flying off my bottle stopper either, though I wasn't nearly as pleased with the bottlestopper finish as I was the pen. I had lost my micromesh though and that could have something to do with it (not to mention how much more difficult it is to rub CA back and forth on beads and coves than a smooth(ish) pen).

-Rick
 
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