cracked CA finish

[mustang_man_93]

I used a piece of red double dyed buckeye burl and took it to a engraver and had it engraved. Brought it home, filled it in with paint and CA glue and sanded smooth. I then used the Stick Fast CA glue wood finish as per directions. After sitting about 24 hours it looks like the glue has "shattered" from the center underneath the finish and all the way around and heading to each end. Does anyone know what could be wrong? I'm kind of new to all of this, so I'm learning as I go.

 

[plano_harry]

Hi Mark, sorry this happened to you. I don't think we know for sure, but it is often associated with old CA. Try the search box on the home page for "CA cracked" and you will find about 400 responses.

 

[mustang_man_93]

Thank you. I will check into that. I actually just bought that finishing kit Tuesday. Don't know how long it had been there, but I see that using that is the way to go for finishing wood.

 

[plano_harry]

Yes, Stick Fast is good and should produce good results. There are all kinds of anomalies that you will read about -- bad batches of accelerator, etc. If you weren't dealing with temperature extremes, it is hard to say. Did you put it on pretty thick? That could cause trouble if the lower layers were not fully cured before they were recoated. Reading all the search comments will give you a strong knowledge of the possible cause.

I would stand it back to remove the cracks. You shouldn't have to go to bare wood, you will still have some CA in the pores to seal it and that will help. And reapply your CA.

In the future, you might try laying on a few coats of CA before your engraving, then your color fill will be easier and you will have a stable base finish to lay the new layers on. I usually sand up to the first 3 or 4 micromesh pads to get a smooth surface before I head to the laser. Pretty sure that had nothing to do with the cracking issue, but just a seems to be a common approach and it works well for me.

 

[mustang_man_93]

Yeah, I have seen that it does produce a nice, durable and easy finish. I maintain 70 degrees with about 40% humidity. Being this was my first time using it, I think I may have put it on kind of thick. I applied the thin glue once and put 4 layers and after shooting the accelerator on it, I gave it about 10 seconds before I applied the next coat. I just went to sand it and it seems to have cracked from underneath the glue cause it was really smooth to the touch and as I sanded it down I still kept seeing the cracks and then eventually it started to flake off the wood. So right now I'm down to bare wood.

As for what you do before going to the engraver, I will try that. All I did was, sand it to the point of being ready for applying the finfish.