Randy Simmons
Member
I have gotten a LOT of PM's about giving a pen a good CA finish, so I figured I'd just put "my way" out there.
A CA finish is, in my opinion, the best and most trusted way to professionally finish a pen. The shine and glasslike feel you get, along with the intense durability, is something that you and certainly your customers will love. That is assuming, of course, that you do it right.
There are a few things you will need. A bottle of thin and medium CA glue (some people use thick, I prefer not to). Micro-mesh sanding cloth, and a few of those little bags that your pen parts come packaged in. You may also want some accelerator.
First, have the "turning" done. Get your ends down to bushings, sand to 600 grit (I noticed that in your other thread you had sanded the wood down to 1500 grit. I usually find that this isn't necessary.) Make sure that the piece is clean. Get out any tool marks, sanding scratches, and most importantly dust.
Put one of those plastic bags over the finger you'll be applying finish with. I like to run my lathe at only 840 RPM to keep the liquid from being slung off and forming blobs. Hold your finger against the bottom of the wood (not that tightly, just make contact) and hold the CA bottle against the top, and apply a layer of thin. Move your finger along with the bottle, and keep the layer even as you move. The first layer will probably soak in almost instantly and/or dry on the surface, which is exactly what you want, it will strengthen the structure of the wood. After that layer is dry, repeat the process with another layer of thin. This one will also dry relatively quickly.
Now for the medium. If you have a lot of part bags, change them out after each use, it prevents the flakes on the surface of the plastic from sometimes getting stuck in the finish. Repeat the process.
This stuff will take longer to dry, as it is thicker and not soaking into the wood as much. This is where you may want to use accelerator. I don't use it, but you may want to. Whether you use aerosol or a squirt bottle, stand back (for the aerosol I would say 2-3 feet, for the squirt bottle about 6-12 inches) if you are too close, it will dry unevenly and look awful, and you'll have to sand it off and start over. I usually do 2-3 layers of medium, you may want more depending on the wood, but definitely no less than two. You don't want "holes" in your finish when you sand.
Now for the real magic. That raw CA prolly looks pretty shiny. You haven't seen anything :wink: I personally like to wet sand, I swear by it. It will prevent your finish from getting too hot and makes the micro mesh more effective. Start with the fifteen hundred. You don't need to spend long, only about three seconds, to get the lumps and bumps out of the top layer. The same goes for the eighteen hundred and the twenty four hundred. But make sure the layer is smooth. It won't be quite shiny yet, but you'll get there.
Tip: keep your hands moving and the paper wet. If you get the CA too hot (it's basically a very thin layer of plastic) it will melt and you'll have a brown ring of melty CA that is very hard to get off. You also need to distribute your hand pressure across the wood to make sure every area gets and even sanding. This will keep your micro mesh from degrading as well
Once you are at thirty two hundred, You'll want to take a little longer. This is when you start to really polish. I like to count to five for each tube I sand on. Do this until you reach four thousand.
Tip: Take a rag of cloth and wipe all the wet CA dust off the pen between grits. The dust particles are the same size as the previous grit, which isn't good for sanding and makes getting a clean polish difficult.
Now you're almost ready for four thousand. Stop the lathe, and examine your finish. Make sure you haven't sanded through in any places, and that there are not any "lines" from when you applied the finish, because four thousand and below won't be able to eliminate them. These streaks will be clear and somewhat diagonal, and you should be able to feel them.
After you are sure that your finish is free of defects, start with the four thousand. I spend longer here, I'd say count to eight. Repeat with six and eight thousand. Once you're down to twelve thousand, I count to ten and really make sure I do a good job. Again, wipe off the CA dust. Once you're done, stop the lathe and bask in the glory. But wait! there's more!
Now you've got to get the thing off the bushings. It can be more of a challenge than you might think. CA can (and should, so you know the ends are done well) "bleed" onto the bushings and glue them together, at least on the surface. There are two ways to separate the bushings. The easiest is to carefully bend the tube and bushings apart until one side cracks (right along the seam where the bushings and wood touch), then you can wiggle the collar out of the tube. If it's really stuck, you can use a disassembly rod (or something else that will fit into the tube) and give it a few taps. Make sure you have a way to catch the bushing to make sure it doesn't go flying. DON'T twist the bushings off. That's the easiest way ever to split the grain in half.
If you have any pieces of finish hanging off the end of the tube, use your fingernail to push them in toward the center. If you pull them outward, you can bananapeel the finish you worked so hard on (ask me how I learned that)
You're all done! Press your pen together and enjoy your handiwork. It may take you a few (or in my case, twenty three) tries to get it just right, but it is worth the effort.
Also, in order to preserve the quality of the glue, you'll want to keep it refrigerated. If you live in a cold, low humidity, or high altitude climate, you shouldn't have many problems. But down here in the south when it can get up to two hundred percent humidity, and other mind-bendingly miserable conditions, having your glue sit around in the garage isn't too good for it.
Enjoy!
Randy
Any other thoughts would be great. I prolly left something out.
A CA finish is, in my opinion, the best and most trusted way to professionally finish a pen. The shine and glasslike feel you get, along with the intense durability, is something that you and certainly your customers will love. That is assuming, of course, that you do it right.
There are a few things you will need. A bottle of thin and medium CA glue (some people use thick, I prefer not to). Micro-mesh sanding cloth, and a few of those little bags that your pen parts come packaged in. You may also want some accelerator.
First, have the "turning" done. Get your ends down to bushings, sand to 600 grit (I noticed that in your other thread you had sanded the wood down to 1500 grit. I usually find that this isn't necessary.) Make sure that the piece is clean. Get out any tool marks, sanding scratches, and most importantly dust.
Put one of those plastic bags over the finger you'll be applying finish with. I like to run my lathe at only 840 RPM to keep the liquid from being slung off and forming blobs. Hold your finger against the bottom of the wood (not that tightly, just make contact) and hold the CA bottle against the top, and apply a layer of thin. Move your finger along with the bottle, and keep the layer even as you move. The first layer will probably soak in almost instantly and/or dry on the surface, which is exactly what you want, it will strengthen the structure of the wood. After that layer is dry, repeat the process with another layer of thin. This one will also dry relatively quickly.
Now for the medium. If you have a lot of part bags, change them out after each use, it prevents the flakes on the surface of the plastic from sometimes getting stuck in the finish. Repeat the process.
This stuff will take longer to dry, as it is thicker and not soaking into the wood as much. This is where you may want to use accelerator. I don't use it, but you may want to. Whether you use aerosol or a squirt bottle, stand back (for the aerosol I would say 2-3 feet, for the squirt bottle about 6-12 inches) if you are too close, it will dry unevenly and look awful, and you'll have to sand it off and start over. I usually do 2-3 layers of medium, you may want more depending on the wood, but definitely no less than two. You don't want "holes" in your finish when you sand.
Now for the real magic. That raw CA prolly looks pretty shiny. You haven't seen anything :wink: I personally like to wet sand, I swear by it. It will prevent your finish from getting too hot and makes the micro mesh more effective. Start with the fifteen hundred. You don't need to spend long, only about three seconds, to get the lumps and bumps out of the top layer. The same goes for the eighteen hundred and the twenty four hundred. But make sure the layer is smooth. It won't be quite shiny yet, but you'll get there.
Tip: keep your hands moving and the paper wet. If you get the CA too hot (it's basically a very thin layer of plastic) it will melt and you'll have a brown ring of melty CA that is very hard to get off. You also need to distribute your hand pressure across the wood to make sure every area gets and even sanding. This will keep your micro mesh from degrading as well
Once you are at thirty two hundred, You'll want to take a little longer. This is when you start to really polish. I like to count to five for each tube I sand on. Do this until you reach four thousand.
Tip: Take a rag of cloth and wipe all the wet CA dust off the pen between grits. The dust particles are the same size as the previous grit, which isn't good for sanding and makes getting a clean polish difficult.
Now you're almost ready for four thousand. Stop the lathe, and examine your finish. Make sure you haven't sanded through in any places, and that there are not any "lines" from when you applied the finish, because four thousand and below won't be able to eliminate them. These streaks will be clear and somewhat diagonal, and you should be able to feel them.
After you are sure that your finish is free of defects, start with the four thousand. I spend longer here, I'd say count to eight. Repeat with six and eight thousand. Once you're down to twelve thousand, I count to ten and really make sure I do a good job. Again, wipe off the CA dust. Once you're done, stop the lathe and bask in the glory. But wait! there's more!
Now you've got to get the thing off the bushings. It can be more of a challenge than you might think. CA can (and should, so you know the ends are done well) "bleed" onto the bushings and glue them together, at least on the surface. There are two ways to separate the bushings. The easiest is to carefully bend the tube and bushings apart until one side cracks (right along the seam where the bushings and wood touch), then you can wiggle the collar out of the tube. If it's really stuck, you can use a disassembly rod (or something else that will fit into the tube) and give it a few taps. Make sure you have a way to catch the bushing to make sure it doesn't go flying. DON'T twist the bushings off. That's the easiest way ever to split the grain in half.
If you have any pieces of finish hanging off the end of the tube, use your fingernail to push them in toward the center. If you pull them outward, you can bananapeel the finish you worked so hard on (ask me how I learned that)
You're all done! Press your pen together and enjoy your handiwork. It may take you a few (or in my case, twenty three) tries to get it just right, but it is worth the effort.
Also, in order to preserve the quality of the glue, you'll want to keep it refrigerated. If you live in a cold, low humidity, or high altitude climate, you shouldn't have many problems. But down here in the south when it can get up to two hundred percent humidity, and other mind-bendingly miserable conditions, having your glue sit around in the garage isn't too good for it.
Enjoy!
Randy
Any other thoughts would be great. I prolly left something out.
So there isn't a real reason to use 10 other than that. In fact I used to use 8 till I found a way to fold the towel a little tighter with each application.
