when you are finished

[montess]

just put a CA finish on for the first time and was impressed. I put way too much on but hey doing the learning curve. I have heard of people putting on 20 coats and was wondering how to avoid the build up, making the pen too thick for the kit? :biggrin:

 

[Jgrden]

Yikes, I use thin CA with BLO for a nice glossy finish. When I have issue with an uneven or poc marked finished the medium is used and heavy. A Styrofoam tab spreads it nicely at a slow speed and then sand papered and polished. Lots of ways to work with the stuff.

 

[Dalecamino]

John Goodin at Penturners products sells bushings. Steel for turning, and Delrin for finishing. They are VERY accurate. I think you may be referring to guys using 20 coats of THIN CA. To me that's more than is needed, but it works for them. That's fine. You can try measuring you pen parts with calipers, then build you coating of CA a few thousandths over that. Then start wet sanding down to your measured diameter. Don't worry, this will take some practice.

 

[Ulises Victoria]

I have found this method to be a bit quicker.
I cut a folded paper towel into 13-14 slabs. This way I know exactly how many layers I'm putting. I use only thin CA with a couple squirts of accelerator between layers. I then sand with DRY 400 abranet until there is no shiny spots *at all* in the blank. I then do one more light pass with 600. I then apply Stick Fast CA Polish Satin followed by Stick Fast CA Polish Gloss, and lastly some Plastic Polish.

My other method is, after the CA application, go through 18 steps of WET sanding: from 150 to 800 and then MM from 1500 to 12000, finishing with Plastic Polish.

Never had a buildup problem with either.

 

[flippedcracker]

You account for thickness you add in CA by turning below the bushings by the same amount.