I have this little nagging thought that when I put wax on my bushings to keep the CA from sticking to them that it also gets on my wood blank and keeps the CA from sticking on it as well. My reason for giving this consideration is that when I have problems with the CA finish, it is usually at the ends.
I haven't done an extensive study on this, but it makes sense to me. Does it make sense to anyone else?
Well, your thoughts are valid and to consider, waxing the barrels ends before inserting the bushing to prevent the CA from stick everything together, can do precisely that, if one uses far too much and too "runny" of a wax, even if is solix wax, can easily melt if the wood is subjected to excessive heating, normally from sanding.
Quite honestly, I have used it before and had no troubles, I was very careful to put the wax on, I actually rubbed a bit of wax in a piece of paper and then put the pen barrel ends on on spot and carefully rotated it, putting some pressure downwards to make sure the waw would cover the wood ends. what you need to avoid is to rub the wax side to side and getting lots of wax on the sides of the barrel, that means troubles...!
However, and all this said, after you got the pen barrels shaped and turned to size, you will have no sticking issues if you remove the barrels from the mandrel and do the using Delrin bushes, you can still finish the 2 barrels at the same time but, you no longer have the metal bushings there, causing a problem when you finish them and want to take them appart.
If the CA finish is your preferred finish, maker sure you find out what is the CA thickness of your finishes, you achieve this by using a digital calipers to measure the blank before you start the finish and then after you are done. The difference is your CA thickness and considering that, you are consistent with your finish (number of coats and viscosities), you can use the Delrin bushings to your advantage also by, turning/finishing the blanks (sanding) with the metal bushings size less the thickness of you finish, this way, you will endup with a perfect fit to the metal components of the pen when putting it all together.
You will find these Delrins bushings in any pen turning accessories store, you simply insert them in your mandrel the same way as you did with the bushing but this time, you don't have to worry about barrel diameters, the Delrin bushes are conical so, they will fit in any pen tube.
When you finish, you will endup with a little excess of CA on the ends, that when you take the barrels to whatever jig you've got to square the handes.
If you have a buffing wheel. I suggest you take the freshly square ends to it and buff the square/sharp edges off and the fit in normally improved that way...!
I hope that this will help you, somehow...!
Good luck,
Cheers
George
