Spidercracks in CA finish

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PaulyW

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I hope someone has a good idea on why this has happened.

I have been doing CA finish on my pens for quite a while but I recently had a 3 pens that ended up with spidercracks in the finish. The blanks I had used were both wood and also fusion pens. Of course this would only happen on expensive kits.

Did I do something wrong? to much pressure in assembly?

Is there a simple fix or do I take apart and sand the finish off and redo?
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I'm guessing it's from the brand of glue you used. Not all of them are flexible and may crack over time depending on the thickness and amount of accelerator used. I had the same problem before switching to Gluboost which is a flexible finish. No problem since.
 
My guess is using accelerator too frequently on thick layer(s) of CA.
This is only a guess as I don't know your finishing process.
The best way to resolve this is to disassemble the pen and remove/sand CA layer(s) until the webbing is gone. Reapply CA.
Lazy man's way to fix........If I could mount the sections of the pen such that I can get it to rotate I might try a little Acetone on a cotton swab to see if loosening the CA up a bit might help it bond back together but I might try it on one section only. Acetone is strong stuff and might affect other parts of the assembly also. I do not take any responsibility though if you choose to try this as I have no idea it will work.
 
I started out using Stickfast and learned quickly that it was terrible as a finish. There are many flexible ones, but I also jumped on the GluBoost bandwagon and am happy with the results. I do go very easy on accelerant, too. CA dries pretty fast as it is.

You could call it a "feature". The finish is antiqued like an heirloom pen passed down for generations!
 
I've had this problem in the past, it showed up on the pens somewhere from days to weeks after they were turned and finished. I can't offer any definitive cause, because I changed a couple things at the same time, and one or a combination seemed to solve the problem for me.

First, I clean my blanks with denatured alcohol before finishing. The change I made was to allow more time for the alcohol to evaporate before starting to apply the finish - I thought I might have had some alcohol trapped under the finish that caused it to crack "craze" like that.

At the same time, I tossed my bottle of CA and opened a fresh - new one.

Like many others, I switched to GluBoost shortly after it became available on Exotic Blanks, but I still finish some pens successfully using my old CA regimen.

To fix mine, I simply disassembled, then sanded them with 400 grit, wiped them down with acetone which softens/dissolves CA and then re-applied my CA finish and followed through with wet sanding and polishing. The most difficult part was of course disassembly.

Good Luck - Those are some nice looking blanks. - Dave
 
I also used stickfast and got the same thing...I left CA for a long time and really only did acrylic....I became friends with John Underhill, and he turned me on to Glu-boost. It is awesome....I have even used it over acrylic. I personally think some of the difference is in their accelerator....SOOO much better.... Give it a try.....I don't think you will be disappointed.
 
In addition to all the above--old CA will craze like that as well. I learned that price savings from volume purchases do not make good economic sense for me!!
 
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