I FINALLY found a use for turning between centers!

[spiritwoodturner]

I have to say it, I just couldn't wrap my arms around the turning between centers thing. I went ahead and bought one of Johnny's dead centers (man, he has GREAT stuff!) and a revolving tailstock center, but my heart just wasn't in it. I mean, turning each piece separately, and then 5-8 coats of CA, TWICE?!!! Please...

Well, normally I don't have a big problem with CA sticking to bushings. I trim them down with a narrow parting tool, and usually just "click" 'em off with my handy dandy Robopliers from Sears. Rarely if ever have I had a problem.

Then I got a wild hair to try some Alabaster. Holy cow, if bubble gum gets in between a bushing and the Alabaster, it's send the kids out, it's "Daddy's cussing, Mommy!" time. So I got so far today (one piece, no sandthrough, perfect) on my Alabaster pen, I thought I'd try them 1 blank at a time.

Well, it was PERFECT! Slow, but perfect. I decided it's way quicker to get it done with no failures than 7 times starting over. I'm slow, but not stupid! So I doubt I'll do every pen that way from the start, but I do finally have a use for it!

My only questions is, I still got some overflow of CA on the ends onto the centers. It didn't stick NEARLY like it does to a bushing, but any ideas how to stop that? I thought of wax, or waxed paper over the tips. What do you do?

Thanks,
Dale

 

[areaman]

waxing the bushings before applying ca works for me.

 

[rwyoung]

I've only done a few but a quick hit of paste wax (Johnsons in the yellow can seems fine) on the bushings has worked for me. Just be careful not to get it on the blank before you start the CA (guess how I know that).

 

[altaciii]

Ren wax on bushings or centers before you turn and theres no ca sticking

 

[rherrell]

I make my own centers out of Delrin. That's a "revolving" drill chuck on the right. I use this set-up for sanding and finishing. CA won't stick, at least not very well, to Delrin.
You'll have better luck finding Delrin if you look for it by it's generic name....acetal. I use 1/2" mostly and I get it from MSC.

 

[spiritwoodturner]

Rick, I think that's the ticket for me. The wax thing sounds OK but if you contaminate the blank with a speck of it, you're toast. I'll check on the Delrin, er, acetal. I have one of those revolving chucks with interchangeable bits, I'll just turn that post down to the chuck size and friction fit it.

Thanks all,
Dale