Great videos TonyL. I have made several pens using the thin CA glue. But it drys so fast the paper will stick to the blank if I'm not real fast? In these videos the turner doesn't seem to worry about getting it applied and removing the paper towel? Am I using the wrong type CA glue?
As the boiled linseed oil and the cyanoacrylate react to each other, they get very hot, and the CA cures extremely fast on the blank where they mix. The time you have to work it isn't super long, but thin CA glue usually has a working time of 15 - 20 seconds before it has set. Mixing with BLO gives you about 3 - seconds of working time, which is enough in pen making to go back and forth over the pen barrels twice, at least. You'll notice if the pad you are using is starting to stick to your work piece and you'll develop a sense of timing for it pretty quick.
If you make a mistake, it's not the end of the world ... grab some 400-grit or 500-grit paper and a bowl of water (protect your lathe bed when you wet-sand), and sand off the paper towel that's stuck to the blank. When you apply your next layer of CA, the scratch marks left by the wet sanding will disappear completely.
The superglue that I use is just the standard stuff that is offered by Harbor Freight Tools. Not a large bottle .... nope, not for me ... I use those little applicator tubes.
If you get a big bottle and leave the top open, you lose a lot of the product .... if I leave the cap off a tube, I toss it and grab another.
Also, can you actually use up that WHOLE bottle before the last of it turns solid on you? I'm always emptying the last bit out of my tubes, so my waste is much lower ...
As Jamie Hieneman (Mythbusters co-host) always says about his superglue ... "Using a little at a time is a lot better than losing a lot at a time". He always gets those little "single project" applicators to use, and I think his idea was a good one.
