What a mess!

[Tiger]

I hope you can see this from the picture but I was working on some olive wood and applied my CA finish, then MM Brasso and Swirl Remover. I wasn't totally satisfied with the finish so I sanded it right back to 240 grit and reapplyed everything, all going ok put the final touches on it and after a few seconds patches of white. I then rub this with Brasso and they go away but only for a moment, rub Brasso and goes away but after a few seconds it comes right back. It looks like some of the old CA trapped between the new one and the wood, is that correct or is it something else?

If I wanted to save this would I have to take it back to a coarser grit and do everything again?

 

[keithbyrd]

I wouldn't go to a coaser grit - too many scratches -I might use 320 but probably a new piece of 400. Did you take the first coat off all the way to the wood? If not you may have to. Using 400 would be slower but a whole lot safer IMHO!

 

[Tiger]

Tried 400 but the white residue was still there, same thing happened with 320 so went to 240.

 

[renowb]

Sometimes thin CA will seep down into pores and lighten the wood, at least I've seen that happen. I would take it all the way down again and see if the light spots are still there. If so, it's probably there for good, JMHO.

 

[Justturnin]

I think if you have enough room to try again and are willing I would sand it all the way off and allow it to dry for a few days. The white could be moisture from the original sanding. I would also use some Acetone or similar to clean the blank to make sure there is no Brasso or anything that would prevent the CA from sticking to the wood.

 

[PenMan1]

An inexpensive moisture meter might be a worthwhile investment. From the looks of your photos, it looks like your BOW (notorious for trapping moisture) is not yet dry enough for acceptable CA finish.

Even with a stick of BOW that reads around 5 percent, I will still use three liberal applications of CA accelerator, after sanding and before applying finish.

You BOW looks darker than what I usually find. It makes me suspect moist blanks OR BLO added to the finish process. While YMMV, I find it almost impossible to use ANY BLO in the CA finish process.

I hope this helps. Respectfully submitted.

 

[nativewooder]

You have gotten a lot of good advice. Sand back to the wood. Olive is dense and may never dry so you need to clean it with accelerator or acetone, let air dry and then try your finish. Any dense oily wood will need to be stripped before trying to coat with CA glue.

 

[Drstrangefart]

I normally grab a skew or my gouge of choice and strip it back to bare wood before I start over. It requires a careful touch, but if THAT doesn't get it, I just scrub the tubes and move on with life. Had a large handful of those, and only 2 or 3 were still there after getting re-done from bare wood.

 

[bitshird]

I'd go with Pen Man1 and don't go nuts with the grit, Most likely you have an abundance of oil still in the wood that's reacting to the CA, soak the blanks thoroughly with Acetone or CA Accelerator several times and LET IT DRY at least a few hours, otherwise your finish may lift off.
Then start reapplying your CA.

 

[randyrls]

I will take a different tack, and suspect the Brasso. The solvent in Brasso is likely petroleum based. Make sure you remove every little bit of the Brasso before reapplying.

 

[PenMan1]

I will take a different tack, and suspect the Brasso. The solvent in Brasso is likely petroleum based. Make sure you remove every little bit of the Brasso before reapplying.

Brasso could be the problem, but I still suspect wet wood. I used brasso OVER CA for years and as far as I know, I've never had issues with it. Brasso is ammonia based, and ammonia IS USED to strip old wax from hardwood floors, tile, etc. So Brasso could have destroyed the CA bond.

My FIRST GUESS ( and without poking the wood with a moisture meter, all of our comments are guesses) is wet wood. The reason it is my first guess is because with the humidity in my shop, it is almost impossible to get BOW, Cocobolo and East Indian Rosewood dry enough to CA finish without use of a microwave.

ANOTHER REASON for my guess is that the current humidity level in Melborne is 93 percent. That gets BOW real finicky.

Respectfully submitted.

 

[leehljp]

I would forgo the 240 also. It is not a matter that 240 will get there faster, it is a matter of getting there without causing more damage. Yes, it will take longer with 320 or 400. If you have spent 12 hours with questions and responses, it only take about 10 to 15 minutes longer to sand down with 320 and maybe 10 minutes longer with 400. And you have done less damage too. If you sand down with 320 to get to the base wood , think of how much smoother it already is at the base than if you were at 240.

You can go there with 240, but you still have to build back up the sandpaper grit. I rarely use 320, and take my time sanding down with 400. With this, I KNOW it is in shape, smooth and ready to be smoother without having to oversand in order to get the sanding scratches out.

 

[Tiger]

Thank you all for the detailed advice on this problem. I sanded back to 240 thinking that would remove any residue of oil, Brasso or anything else but possibly there were still traces of it in the timber. The timber itself I believe to be dry, I have used many blanks from the same piece of timber and not had this reaction. I did however use a little bit of BLO to pop the grain and done this with other bits of olive wood and not suffered any adverse effects. The BLO was only but on during my first application and sanding back to 240 I assumed was going to remove it. I also rubbed a rag against the timber with the lathe on to remove any last bit of it.
Humidity is a little high at the moment and temperature is cold but I turned some more olive wood straight after the other disaster and no ill effects. Interesting that I could just use the 400 or 320, happy to do that as now there isn't much timber to play with, I just kept going before thinking I had to remove all the white residue.
I don't care too much about losing the blanks but I'd like to understand why this has happened and you guys have hopefully spared these blanks from the scrap heap. Will let you know after I let the blanks dry out a bit and use acetone to remove BLO.