Walnut Big Ben with Berea Artists UV Cure Resin Finish

[David350]

I finally had the opportunity to get back to trying out the Berea Artists UV as a finish again (first pen was posted on Dec 15th). I had an issue this time with getting small "bumps" in the finish, sorry no pictures as I didn't think about it until now). I sanded the coat off and recoated, again with just a single coat of the resin. However, this time, I rotated the lathe by hand to apply it to the blank and once covered, I turned it back on low (about 600 RPM), to wipe from side to side to make sure it was evenly covered. I'm not sure this was the issue, but the only thing I can think of was I was getting some tiny air bubbles trapped below the resin as I was extremely careful to make sure everything was clean prior to application.

I'd be interested in hearing from others if they have tried this and if they also had some tiny bumps in the finish. Again, this pen has one coat of the UV cured resin, with no sanding or polishing after the resin application.

 

[JohnU]

I've had similar results. I tried it as a thin sealer over objects I wanted to cast and found too many trapped air bubbles cures inside only to later be magnified in resin. I wasn't happy with it.

 

[David350]

Forgot to mention that this time, I weighed the UV resin bottle before and after the application to determine how much I was using per pen. As best as I can tell, it was around 1 gram or less which should make the 100 gram bottle last in theory for 100 pens (2 barrel), but I'm sure you won't get every bit out of the bottle due to its viscosity.

Finally, to be clear, I seem to have eliminated the air bubbles, or whatever was causing the tiny bumps by manual application (hand turning the lathe until the blank was coated) then going to slow speed, 600 rpm to even it out. I hope to test this theory out some more in the near future as I really like the idea of this product for a finish as it is very simple with a single coat / no sanding / polishing and economical...

 

[dagneytx]

As a uv resin jewelry maker and epoxy tumbler maker also, I can say that you can get rid of bubbles in resin/epoxy with a lighter (fire) or alcohol. I have not tried coating a pen yet, so I can't say which is best. Also, I'm not sure 600rpm is slow enough. You can get a tumbler/pen turner on Amazon for pretty cheap an use regular tumbler epoxy or uv resin.

 

[David350]

As a uv resin jewelry maker and epoxy tumbler maker also, I can say that you can get rid of bubbles in resin/epoxy with a lighter (fire) or alcohol. I have not tried coating a pen yet, so I can't say which is best. Also, I'm not sure 600rpm is slow enough. You can get a tumbler/pen turner on Amazon for pretty cheap an use regular tumbler epoxy or uv resin.

Kristen, thanks for your suggestion, I will give that a try. I have seen videos on epoxy tables where they use a torch (lightly) to pop air bubbles and it never occurred to me to try this on the pens (I think I'll use a lighter ). I haven't made too many pens lately due to other priorities but hope to get back to it soon and I will definitely try out your suggestion.

BTW, where in Texas are you?