Rudy Vey
Member
Daniel has given us inside in his "old" way of a CA finish. I will describe here what I call the my way of CA finish. I call this thread "The new way" so we can have a good discussion.
Over the last 4-5 months there was a lot of ways of CA finishing described here. Some are very elaborate and take a long time to get finished. I consider myself a production turner and cannot spend 20 minutes or even a half hour on a CA or any other finish. So, the way I finish must be fast.
For years I was not happy with the results I got with CA finishing my pens. I had tried several of the ways described here, but did not get reproducible results - and this is for me the main point. Sometimes the one barrel came out great, but the other was a pain in the a$$ to get to look the same as the first. Major frustration. For a long time I was even voting against CA. I tried other finishes, like Enduro and Unaxol - I still use them for a certain type of wood.
Then at the AAW Symposium in 2006 our Richard Kleinhenz (Scubaman here on IAP) demonstrated pen turning and finished his demo piece with three or four coats of thin CA - looked great. Rich and I later discussed this a bit more in detail and after I got home I tried it myself. Well, the results were very positive. So, here is how I do the CA finish - and this can be done very quickly and works very well for production turning:
after turning and sanding with MM up to 6000 or 8000, I wipe the blank lengthwise with a dry, old towel to remove all dust from the blank. Then I turn the lathe down to a slow speed, don't know exactly how much rpm, but I would guess somewhere between 200 and 300 rpm.
I slip my finger in one of these small bags from the kits and also use a folded paper towel - no special brand, I just use the ones we buy at BJ's or Costco. So, I hold the folded paper towel under the blank, touching it and dribble thin, yes thin, CA on top of the blank, going back and forth with the towel. One must be quick, because thin CA reacts very fast. Then I use aerosol spray accelerator to cure the finish. I apply 3-4 coats this way. After this, I sand again with MM from 1500 through 4000 or 6000 and finish up with Novus fine polish. The whole procedure is maybe 5 minutes or so, never really stopped the time.
So some may now say this is way to little finish, I don't think so. The next time I do a finish like this, I will measure how thick the coating is I apply. This finish is very protecting. I made some pens for colleagues over a year ago and have a few colleagues using them daily. My wife also has one and it is always in her pocketbook. So, I always check on them all the time and they look like new. Just last week a colleague and I were traveling on business together and the pen he used all the time was the Sierra I made last year for him. It looked like it was brandnew from the lathe, still shiny, no scratches or else.
This convinced me that this the way of CA finishing is the perfect way for a fast and good "production" finish. I know many of you do not make a lot of pens and have the time to spend on finishing a pen - some even let them sit over night or 24 hours before they finish the pen completely.
I believe one of the tricks here is to use the aerosol spray accelerator, I tried the pump spray and it does work not as good as the spray - the CA will bubble sometimes with the pump accelerator and leave a rougher surface.
Over the last 4-5 months there was a lot of ways of CA finishing described here. Some are very elaborate and take a long time to get finished. I consider myself a production turner and cannot spend 20 minutes or even a half hour on a CA or any other finish. So, the way I finish must be fast.
For years I was not happy with the results I got with CA finishing my pens. I had tried several of the ways described here, but did not get reproducible results - and this is for me the main point. Sometimes the one barrel came out great, but the other was a pain in the a$$ to get to look the same as the first. Major frustration. For a long time I was even voting against CA. I tried other finishes, like Enduro and Unaxol - I still use them for a certain type of wood.
Then at the AAW Symposium in 2006 our Richard Kleinhenz (Scubaman here on IAP) demonstrated pen turning and finished his demo piece with three or four coats of thin CA - looked great. Rich and I later discussed this a bit more in detail and after I got home I tried it myself. Well, the results were very positive. So, here is how I do the CA finish - and this can be done very quickly and works very well for production turning:
after turning and sanding with MM up to 6000 or 8000, I wipe the blank lengthwise with a dry, old towel to remove all dust from the blank. Then I turn the lathe down to a slow speed, don't know exactly how much rpm, but I would guess somewhere between 200 and 300 rpm.
I slip my finger in one of these small bags from the kits and also use a folded paper towel - no special brand, I just use the ones we buy at BJ's or Costco. So, I hold the folded paper towel under the blank, touching it and dribble thin, yes thin, CA on top of the blank, going back and forth with the towel. One must be quick, because thin CA reacts very fast. Then I use aerosol spray accelerator to cure the finish. I apply 3-4 coats this way. After this, I sand again with MM from 1500 through 4000 or 6000 and finish up with Novus fine polish. The whole procedure is maybe 5 minutes or so, never really stopped the time.
So some may now say this is way to little finish, I don't think so. The next time I do a finish like this, I will measure how thick the coating is I apply. This finish is very protecting. I made some pens for colleagues over a year ago and have a few colleagues using them daily. My wife also has one and it is always in her pocketbook. So, I always check on them all the time and they look like new. Just last week a colleague and I were traveling on business together and the pen he used all the time was the Sierra I made last year for him. It looked like it was brandnew from the lathe, still shiny, no scratches or else.
This convinced me that this the way of CA finishing is the perfect way for a fast and good "production" finish. I know many of you do not make a lot of pens and have the time to spend on finishing a pen - some even let them sit over night or 24 hours before they finish the pen completely.
I believe one of the tricks here is to use the aerosol spray accelerator, I tried the pump spray and it does work not as good as the spray - the CA will bubble sometimes with the pump accelerator and leave a rougher surface.
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