ca and bushing question

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Lewiscostley

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Joined
Sep 23, 2014
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18
Location
michigan
So i'm new tot he whole pen turing thing, and its obvious that i need to learn a few tricks of the trade. I turned my third pen today, and had a beautiful ca finish. after buffing it I was quite proud of the finish until I tried to take off the bushing and the ca finsh chipped and ruined the pen in my opion. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Lew
 
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First.. it is not ruined.... it is fixable. I cannot count how many things I have done that my first impression was that I ruined the pen. it will take some delicate care, but sand back down to a smooth surface, get some plastic bushings and refinish. I have gone so far as to disassemble pens that I thought we perfect until I had them all assembled. if you cannot get the plastic bushings right away, you can still use the metal bushings, but what I used to do is put a coat or two of finish on.. then stop and loosen the nut on the rod, turn the bushings a bit... tighten back and and apply more finish. I am not sure that is the best method, but it worked for me until I could get plastic bushings
 
I'm pretty new at all of this myself. One thing I bought was a set of these.

BG160_274x274.jpg


Whether I've used these or just finished with the regular bushings in place, I drop them in a jar of acetone to soak the yuck off before next use.
 
My procedure

CAVEAT: I take no responsibility for the safety of this procedure, but it is what I do and it works for me.

I turn the lathe speed way down, and use a jewelers blade screwdriver held with both hands braced against the base of my lathe. The blade of the screwdriver is pointed up, nearly vertical and above the centerline of the blank so it won't be grabbed by the rotating blank. The blade is slowly introduced to the bushing. Once it is on the bushing, I move the screwdriver blade slowly to the bushing/blank joint, scraping the CA glue off the bushing.

I then turn the lathe off. Once the ''cleaning' is accomplished, and the pen and bushing(s) are removed from the mandrel, I am very, very careful about separating the blank from bushing by snapping it free. It doesn't take much effort if the bushing is cleaned of CA. If it doesn't come easily off, I put the blank/bushing back on the lathe and do the process over.

Once off, I take the blank to a flat surface and sand it by holding the blank vertical and making small circles on a piece of 600 grit sandpaper held flat against the flat surface.

I have tried the nylon bushings, and found (for me) they interfered with putting the CA on the ends of the blank.

Again, I am sure some will cringe at this method, and I hesitated to post it for that express reason. But I have seen similar questions asked before and this works for me.

Be careful!
Warren
 
rather than sanding in circles, if you sand in a figure 8 pattern you get a more even surface. I learned this from fiber optic terminations. All of those connections that were hand finished used to require a polishing using a figure 8 motion
 
+1 for creating a break line.

Also, best generic turning tip I can offer: learn to use a skew chisel. The skew is THE most versatile turning tool in my opinion. If you can figure out how to use it well, it will also improve how you use other tools too, as you will become very comfortable figuring out angles, bevel placement, etc.
 
Before I got those Delrin finishing bushings and got set up for doing TBC, I would apply a light coat of paste wax to my metal bushings. That seemed to help prevent gluing the bushing to the blank.

I would also use a carbon steel skew upside down (toe down, heel up -- think " \ " rather than " / ") and come straight in at where the bushing and blank met to score or cut through any CA that might have covered things. It worked okay.

I find that I can get better coverage finishing between centers. I do use the Delrin bushings occasionally, but not as much since most of my turning is between centers and I'm yet to glue a pen blank to either the dead center or live center.
 
Lewiscostley said:
So i'm new tot he whole pen turing thing, and its obvious that i need to learn a few tricks of the trade. I turned my third pen today, and had a beautiful ca finish. after buffing it I was quite proud of the finish until I tried to take off the bushing and the ca finsh chipped and ruined the pen in my opion. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Lew
Click to expand...
Wax the bushings
 
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