dust in blanks

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avbill

Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2007
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1,973
Location
San Bruno, CA, USA.
good morning,

I have bought several of the inlay kits and have sanded them to a finish. I reach to put my finish on hem except for 1 thing. Wood dust has found the small cracks between the two wood at the lazar cuts.
I have taken a pressurized dust can and it did help a small amount but there is still dust particles where I do not want them to be.

I'm now researching a air compressor. I have a small shop so I can't get anything really big.

Are these pancake compressors with 4 gal 115 PSI any good? any help wold be appreciated. thanks
 
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I had that same problem with a lazer kit I just completed, I used a toothbrush with the Lathe off and that seemed to take care of the problem. I also wiped the blank down with the toothbrush after each stage in the sanding process. I only found 3 small areas with dust and hid those under the clip :)
 
If you use a compressor for other things, or think you will if you have a more capable compressor, then buy the biggest (within reason) air compessor you can fit. The foot print for a 20gal upright isn't much different than a pancake. But the the 4gal can go on a shelf somewhere when not in use.

A 4gal pancake, at max PSI will blow its load quickly, and then the air flow is gone.

I have a 60gal, and love it, but it easily takes a 2ft x 2ft square in the corner.....
 
I bought a 3 gallon compressor from Sears a few year ago thinking that I could use it to top of car tires, etc.

The plan works just fine for my Subaru, the snow blower, and other miscellaneous tires, so I would expect it to also be fine for shop air although I've never used it for that purpose.

The only issue I found with it is that I was unable to top off the tires on my wife's Volvo. For some reason, I was unable to get air to go into the Volvo tires. Of course, the experience with the Volvo was that any ordinary, trivial service actions on my Subaru cost at least three times as much to have done on the Volvo.
 
I've found the trick is not getting the dust to begin with. After turning close to size and before any sanding I flood the blanks with thin CA to fill any gaps. Then turn off any excess and check if you need to re-apply. You may have to add CA more than once if the gap doesn't fill 100%. I also don't use accelerator as it can turn a milky color and you don't want that between the pieces.
 
Two corks and thick CA are your friends - Then after the CA has set firmy with no use of accelerator, a shearscrape and close inspection (I use mag eyes) to see if the corks and CA need another iteration. With no gaps, there is no place for abrasive swarf to accumulate.

I shear scrape and then move to abrasives beginning with higher grits.

P.S I color the brass tubes with sharpie for all these assemblies with the color dependent on the selection.
 
Around this time of year, HD usually has a very small compressor and brad gun with hoses and attachements for around $60. It is very small light weight and works well enough to put more than 50 lbs of air in a small pressure pot. Additionally, it puts out just the right amount of air to clean the laser blanks without risk of "blasting" the tiny parts loose.

I have a huge air compressor and hose reels all around the shop, BUT I keep this little compressor, my pressure pot and casting materials on a small cart so that I can roll the whole smelly casting set up outside when casting. It is one of the most used tools in my shop.
 
one method that I use is to chuck up a piece of ebony and sand it with 120 grit, saving all of the dust. I then make a slury of this dust and thick ca and apply that to the blank with sand paper. It will fill in all the gaps with black and they wont be noticible
 
ssajn said:
I've found the trick is not getting the dust to begin with. After turning close to size and before any sanding I flood the blanks with thin CA to fill any gaps. Then turn off any excess and check if you need to re-apply. You may have to add CA more than once if the gap doesn't fill 100%. I also don't use accelerator as it can turn a milky color and you don't want that between the pieces.
Click to expand...

+1 on filling the gaps before diong any sanding. also wipe the blank with a clean rag with a little DNA. i have a compressor that i use with my vacuum chuck and have never used it to blow dust from turned pen blanks before finishing.
 
PenMan1 said:
Around this time of year, HD usually has a very small compressor and brad gun with hoses and attachements for around $60.
Click to expand...

I bought just the compressor for $29 at HF with a coupon. Great for blowing out stuff in the shop and what you need it for. Just keep in mind that small oil-less compressors are cheap for a reason — they are noisy, the compressor will kick on after the first decent blast of air is taken from the tank, and don't last very long compared to their more expensive and larger oil based units. I'm gonna get a much better oil based and larger capacity unit when this one dies on me.
 
Bill,
I have a little Craftsman compressor and it just slides into a very small empty space. I use it for blowing out tubes, etc. It cost me about $90 and I use it frequently for my pneumatic stapler and other tools, as well as lots of tasks and it works great. Call me if you want to see it.
 
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