Finish Question #132

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Woodchipper

Woodchipper

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As mentioned before, I have a cocobolo blank that showed streaks in the CA finish. I initially applied six coats of thin CA with a paper towel. Today I applied MM to the blank, went back and repeated with the last three MM pads. Looked good and had a high gloss. But looked at the blank under a light and see a few tiny pits in the CA finish. Micro bubbles from the initial application? Thinking about applying 3-4 coats of thin CA with craft foam, then MM. Your thoughts?
 
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Cocobolo should polish up to a good gloss without CA.
I imagine that the oiliness in the cocobolo affects the CA.
I rarely use it as a finish so there will be better qualified folk here to advise you.
 
You might be using too much CA. What I do is slow the lathe speed down to 600-700 rpm. After dry sanding I wipe down the blank to remove all the dust. Then I'll put a coat of thin CA to seal the blank. I let it dry on its own. When dry I use a Scotch Bright pad to level up streaks. I pretty much just knock off the shine from the glue. Then I apply another coat of thin. After the 2 coats of thin I switch to medium CA. I'll put 3 coats of med on then start wet sanding. When I had trouble with CA finishes I talked to the manufacturer of Mercury CA and his suggestion was to cut back on the number of coats I was using. Good Luck.
 
All good info above. Cocobolo is an oily wood. A lot of those Central America woods are. You have to wipe that oils off real good first. I use acetone also. It will remove the surface oils and brighten the wood a bit. Good luck!
 
Question: I've seen a lot of videos of using DNA to wipe blanks (clean) after sanding, and now you all saying to use acetone in oily woods. Will DNA not clean off the oils? Do you just acetone or both? Thanks in advance.
 
I use denatured alcohol to clean blanks simply because it is less harsh and it seems to do the job for me ok. I also use it to clean off sharpie marker marks and other stuff too. I keep a squeeze bottle of it on my workbench.

I use acetone as a soak to clean CA deposits from non-stick bushings and the occasional cap from a CA bottle. I suppose it would work just fine for cleaning blanks too though. I keep it on my workbench in an 8 ounce mason jar with the lid covered with a layer of aluminum tape as it will eat most plastics (acrylics like CA) including the jar lid seal off in a matter of minutes.

Dave
 
GFHWoodWerks said:
Question: I've seen a lot of videos of using DNA to wipe blanks (clean) after sanding, and now you all saying to use acetone in oily woods. Will DNA not clean off the oils? Do you just acetone or both? Thanks in advance.
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depends on the finish. If you are going to use a CA and BLO as a finish then DNA works too. If going with any CA or lacquer or shellac then Acetone is best.
 
jttheclockman said:
depends on the finish. If you are going to use a CA and BLO as a finish then DNA works too. If going with any CA or lacquer or shellac then Acetone is best.
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I believe John misspoke in his second sentence. Acetone is the solvent for CA, so you would not want to use acetone for anything where you wanted your CA to stay intact.

DNA is the solvent for shellac, so keep it away from shellac unless you want to remove it. Not sure if it dissolves lacquer.

As a cleaner, I prefer DNA for the same reasons as Dave above, but acetone works as well.
 
RunnerVince said:
I believe John misspoke in his second sentence. Acetone is the solvent for CA, so you would not want to use acetone for anything where you wanted your CA to stay intact.

DNA is the solvent for shellac, so keep it away from shellac unless you want to remove it. Not sure if it dissolves lacquer.

As a cleaner, I prefer DNA for the same reasons as Dave above, but acetone works as well.
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I did not misspeak. This is for cleaning the blank purpose. As always waiting for it to dry before applying finish is preferred method.
 
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