Mac In Oak Ridge
Member
I am new to this pen making. I, so far have made about 50 pens. I have sold a half dozen and given away another dozen.
The finish on my pens has been a great interest to me and I have explored a few different options. I first tried a Milans product recommended by a guy at the local Woodcraft store. I took a pen with that finish on it to a processing plant and wet hands soon had the finish off of the end where I held the pen. That was not satisfactory to me for a pen that I wanted to sell.
I read a post on our web site about lacquer. I bought a can of Deft brushing lacquer, thinned it 50% with thinner. Put it in a wide mouth bottle. One of the members here posted his method of application that involved putting each pen half on a wire, dipping in the lacquer and spinning it around like an airplane propeller to sling the excess finish off. Two dips about 15 min. apart works well and gives a nice finish without a lot of fussing around. You can get the pen halves off your arbor and get on with the next pen. You don't tie up the arbor or your time waiting for the finish to dry. I tried it and it works well for me.
Then I started reading about the Enduro Water Base Poly. I bought a sample kit of a quart of high gloss poly and a quart of their sanding sealer to match. Attached to this you see the result, the first four pens I finished with that product.
Here is my method and it still needs a little more refinement on my behalf but it works and gives an outstanding finish.
I thinned some of the poly 80/20% Poly/Water. No fancy measuring, just eyeballed it on the wide mouth container I put it in. I turn and sand the blank to finish. I take a small dab of the sealer on a piece of kitchen roll towel and wipe it on the blank, lathe not running. Just turn the blank over by hand and quickly back and fourth with the paper towel and sealer. Then I turn the lathe on and quickly move the towel from one end of the blank to the other, don't dwell in one place. By the time I stop the lathe, move the tailstock back, unscrew the nut on the end of the arbor the blank is dry enough to gently handle. I don't "grab" the blanks, just gingerly remove them from the arbor and put them on a dowel pin on a board. My porcupine, a board with 20 1/4" dowels, pointed on the end, about 5" long. I finish turning all the pen blanks.
Then I take a piece of iron wire with a loop on one end. Kind of like an eye about 1/2" in diameter. The wire is about 8" long. I put one half of a pen on one wire, bend a 90° angle on one end so the leg is about 2" long. I do this to all the pen halves and hang them on a wood stick that I put from my table saw to my jointer.
I open the jar of thinned poly and dip one piece in the poly. Just in and out. I have some paper on the shop floor under where all this is going on so I don't get a build up of finish on the floor. I spin the wire around, perhaps 15-20 seconds as fast as I can get it going. Yes, one or two has gotten away from me. When that happens I just go get it, wipe it off and dip it again and spin.
I hang the dipped and spun piece on the wood stick and pick up the next one and so on. This product has a recommended re coat time of 20-30 min. depending on the humidity and temperature. After about 10 min. has passed I go back and spin each piece again not more than about 10 seconds. As the material sits some still runs down the blank and forms a small ring or droplet on the lower end of the blank. The second spin flings that off.
I do the above twice. Two coats of finish. The blanks hang till the next day. I went to a NAPA Auto Parts store and got a bottle of Meguires Swirl Remover. This is a very fine abrasive liquid used by auto paint shops to remove polish marks from paint finishes. The other Meguires products all insisted that they were to be used with power buffing equipment, the Swirl Remover was the only one that said it could be hand applied. I put a small dab, about the size of my Wife's Granny's butter beans, on a kitchen roll towel and polish each part of the pen. Takes about 20-30 seconds per pen half. Wipes right off, no residue left behind. Makes for a nice polish. Could spend longer with this step but didn't see it necessary. I wipe the blank clean with another paper towel and assemble the pen.
After the pen is fully assembled I take some Renn wax on a bare finger and wipe down the pen. Let that sit a few seconds as I do another pen and then wipe and polish with another kitchen roll towel. An that is it.
Quick, no foul solvents, no smells and what I consider a very acceptable finish.
Anyone have any suggestions to improve the finish I am still in the learning phase, please jump in.
Mac In Oak Ridge
Image Insert:
48.5KB
Image Insert:
33.08KB
The finish on my pens has been a great interest to me and I have explored a few different options. I first tried a Milans product recommended by a guy at the local Woodcraft store. I took a pen with that finish on it to a processing plant and wet hands soon had the finish off of the end where I held the pen. That was not satisfactory to me for a pen that I wanted to sell.
I read a post on our web site about lacquer. I bought a can of Deft brushing lacquer, thinned it 50% with thinner. Put it in a wide mouth bottle. One of the members here posted his method of application that involved putting each pen half on a wire, dipping in the lacquer and spinning it around like an airplane propeller to sling the excess finish off. Two dips about 15 min. apart works well and gives a nice finish without a lot of fussing around. You can get the pen halves off your arbor and get on with the next pen. You don't tie up the arbor or your time waiting for the finish to dry. I tried it and it works well for me.
Then I started reading about the Enduro Water Base Poly. I bought a sample kit of a quart of high gloss poly and a quart of their sanding sealer to match. Attached to this you see the result, the first four pens I finished with that product.
Here is my method and it still needs a little more refinement on my behalf but it works and gives an outstanding finish.
I thinned some of the poly 80/20% Poly/Water. No fancy measuring, just eyeballed it on the wide mouth container I put it in. I turn and sand the blank to finish. I take a small dab of the sealer on a piece of kitchen roll towel and wipe it on the blank, lathe not running. Just turn the blank over by hand and quickly back and fourth with the paper towel and sealer. Then I turn the lathe on and quickly move the towel from one end of the blank to the other, don't dwell in one place. By the time I stop the lathe, move the tailstock back, unscrew the nut on the end of the arbor the blank is dry enough to gently handle. I don't "grab" the blanks, just gingerly remove them from the arbor and put them on a dowel pin on a board. My porcupine, a board with 20 1/4" dowels, pointed on the end, about 5" long. I finish turning all the pen blanks.
Then I take a piece of iron wire with a loop on one end. Kind of like an eye about 1/2" in diameter. The wire is about 8" long. I put one half of a pen on one wire, bend a 90° angle on one end so the leg is about 2" long. I do this to all the pen halves and hang them on a wood stick that I put from my table saw to my jointer.
I open the jar of thinned poly and dip one piece in the poly. Just in and out. I have some paper on the shop floor under where all this is going on so I don't get a build up of finish on the floor. I spin the wire around, perhaps 15-20 seconds as fast as I can get it going. Yes, one or two has gotten away from me. When that happens I just go get it, wipe it off and dip it again and spin.
I hang the dipped and spun piece on the wood stick and pick up the next one and so on. This product has a recommended re coat time of 20-30 min. depending on the humidity and temperature. After about 10 min. has passed I go back and spin each piece again not more than about 10 seconds. As the material sits some still runs down the blank and forms a small ring or droplet on the lower end of the blank. The second spin flings that off.
I do the above twice. Two coats of finish. The blanks hang till the next day. I went to a NAPA Auto Parts store and got a bottle of Meguires Swirl Remover. This is a very fine abrasive liquid used by auto paint shops to remove polish marks from paint finishes. The other Meguires products all insisted that they were to be used with power buffing equipment, the Swirl Remover was the only one that said it could be hand applied. I put a small dab, about the size of my Wife's Granny's butter beans, on a kitchen roll towel and polish each part of the pen. Takes about 20-30 seconds per pen half. Wipes right off, no residue left behind. Makes for a nice polish. Could spend longer with this step but didn't see it necessary. I wipe the blank clean with another paper towel and assemble the pen.
After the pen is fully assembled I take some Renn wax on a bare finger and wipe down the pen. Let that sit a few seconds as I do another pen and then wipe and polish with another kitchen roll towel. An that is it.
Quick, no foul solvents, no smells and what I consider a very acceptable finish.
Anyone have any suggestions to improve the finish I am still in the learning phase, please jump in.
Mac In Oak Ridge
Image Insert:
48.5KB
Image Insert:
33.08KB