Micro mesh help

[Bowhnter]

I just got some micro mesh the other day. What makes it get a cloudy film on it and then in turn imparts onto my blank? I assume the bushings caused it, but how do you prevent it? You can't stay off the bushings completely.

As a follow up, how would I then get it off the blank?
I presume I can just wash out of the micro mesh.

ETA: actually I am a bit disappointed that it did not come out of the pads using a toothbrush and water,
What will clean those up?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[mbroberg]

Do you have some pictures? Are you using the sheets or the pads? Acrylic blanks or wood with CA finish?

Heat, caused by too many RPMs and too much pressure can cause problems with Micto-Mesh, especially the pads. Think of Micro-Mesh as a means of polishing, not sanding. A very light touch is all that is needed.

 

[sbwertz]

The only solution to having the gray material transferred from the bushings to the blank is to remove the bushings before sanding. You can get conical sanding and finishing bushings,

http://www.woodturningz.com/Synthetic_Bushings_for_Glue_Finishing

 

[Jim Burr]

The material you sand off is the cloudy stuff...rinse and repeat. Any bushing material...as you know from reading the hundreds of bushing posts, is metallic...we use delrin or shoot a coat of clear on our bushings that prevents that...right?

 

[Bowhnter]

They are pads, and I use a pretty low RPM to sand. I go thru 400 with sand paper, and was just using the mm to get it really smooth before using Craft Coat. I do not use CA much.

Maybe I should be putting a finish on after 4-600 then using the MM? I am pretty new at this.

Sharon, thanks for the tip, I can make some wooden bushings.

 

[Jim Burr]

Hmmm...ok...you kinda need to define how you want to finish something. Some sanding methods don't work with some finishes and reverse. Figure out what you want to do, library for finish type and sanding, go from there. Not hard...pick one and go with it...pick another and go with that. Mix and match...see what happens!

 

[southernclay]

Mike are you using acrylic or wood blanks?

 

[monophoto]

I presume you are wet sanding with the micromesh. In that case, the cloudy film is the slurry that is caused by the mm removing a small amount of the finish.

The solution is to use a damp cloth (paper towel) to wipe the slurry off. Ideally, you should remove the slurry between grades of MM.

Here's a link to a YouTube video released earlier today showing a pen being turned from acrylic. The turner used micromesh to polish the pen after turning. If you turn the pen from wood and then apply a hard finish (CA or WOP), you would use micromesh in exactly the same way shown in this video.

 

[Bowhnter]

Mike are you using acrylic or wood blanks?

Wood, Purple Heart in this case

 

[NittanyLion]

No need for wood bushings just to sand and MM....no bushings at all work great. Just turn the almost finished blank between centers....tighten down just enough to prevent the blank from turning. This will eliminate any metal shavings in your blank.

 

[southernclay]

Advice is great above. Remove bushings before sanding and finishing. For wood I sand up to 600, wipe dust off blank and apply finish. No micro mesh unless its after a CA finish. For craft coat specifically I don't know too much about after the finish is applied but I don't think you have to do any sanding or micro mesh afterwards.

For plastic I dry sand up to 600 dry then wet micro mesh then use a plastic polish.

Hope it works out for you, have fun with it!