White Tubes Versus Painted Tubes

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jcm71

jcm71

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This may seem like an obvious question to some, however, around the house I'm know as Captain Oblivious.

Thanks to my haul of winnings at the last Super Bowl contest and Exotic's freebies, I have started turning acrylic blanks. I have always painted the tubes a matching color with good success (a couple of failures for not letting the paint cure overnight). Is painting necessary with white tubes? I know brass tubes will show through a semi translucent blank. Will white ones, or do they reflect the dominant color(s) and remain unseen? Thanks to all.
 
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IN MY OPINION!!!
(NOT a statement of fact)

It depends!
Using the white tubes will make your colors lighter. IF you have enough dye in the remaining portion of your blank material, the glue will remain hidden. If there is not enough dye or the material is exceptionally thin, you may see the glue.

FACT: Glue will look like "bubbles" beneath the surface of your pen.

OPINION: I do not find this attractive, BUT it usually only shows up on VERY transparent blanks.

Conclusion: Evaluate your blank material---when in doubt, paint the hole.

Ed
 
as ED said paint the hole.....I took a white w/black stripes acrylic blanks some what transparent painted the hole red in one half for one pen and blue in the other half for another . when turned you would never know that the 2 pens came from 1 white and black blank.
 
IM(not so)HO

Painting tubes,or using white tubes for that matter, is a total waste of time. Even if the color match between tube and blank is perfect, blotchy splats of glue will show up on the finished pen on all but the most opaque resin blanks. Paint the inside of the hole and neither the glue splotches nor the tube will be visible.

If you paint both the tube and hole you are at risk of the tube not fitting.
 
I always paint the inside of the blank and the tube. That way if the tube scratches it on the way in you won't see the brass tube beneath.
 
I have had the most success painting the inside of the blanks with with Rustoleam primer: white, gray, and red/rust. I also spray the tubes lightly (with the same) in the event that I don't get the primer to totally coat the inside of the barrel. I wait at least 12 hours for all to dry. This process was recommended to me by a much more experienced turner, and I have found it to be the most consistent (for me).

Now, I did see a guy on YouTube paint the barrel with Testor's Model Master Acrylic paint. He says he glues his non-painted tubes into the barrel after only 15 minutes using CA. This is a much shorter drying and curing time than posted on paint's instructions. I am going to try it on several transparent AA blanks and see how it goes. I also asked some Amazon users of this paint about drying times and several says it does dry fast. Who knows? I will give it a shot and report.
 
Even though it dries fast, I still wouldn't glue in the tube for a day or two as I want it to completely cure. I am paranoid like that.
 
I am with you my friend. It's more out of curiosity than anything else. Ok, back to how I earn a living :-).
 
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I'm hesitant to recommend trying to gluing them in too soon after painting but, if you want to speed up the drying process, place them in a toaster oven for 20 mins or so on 150.
 
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