Clips marring the finish

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Dave_M

Dave_M

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Dec 10, 2005
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Clovis, CA, USA.
How do you deal with clips marring your finish. My problem is with the Flat Top American Ball Points kits. The clip ends in a ball that is folded over which forms an edge under the clip where it contacts the finish. The clip on this kit is gusseted at the top in the bend so it's very difficult to try to bend the clip so it isn't applying so much pressure to the wood finish.

I hope I'm explaining it properly.

Thanks.
 
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Dave,

One immediate question that comes to mind is how long to you let your finishes cure before assembly? It may be that the finish is still soft when you assemble the pen and that this particular kit is where the problem shows up since the clip is tighter.
 
One thing I always do is put a folded piece of paper between the pen and the clip during assembly, this way it can't ruin the finish. As for ruining the finish after assembly, never had that happen, so I am not much help there.

Sheldon
 
That's smart Crazybear. I think I'm assembling too soon. I'm finding that the lacquer is taking at least three weeks to really setup. I've been assembling a week after applying the finish. I need to be more patient or get better with applying a CA finish. The only clip that does this to me is the Flat Top American Ballpoint kit. It seems to apply a lot of pressure to the surface of the pen. I'm going to start saving those plastic sleeves on the clips.
 
Originally posted by Firefyter-emt
<br />The lacquer will always leave a mark with a clip, it's just the nature of the finish. CA does hold up better to this.
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I'm sorry, Lee, but that's just not accurate. I have a boatload of pens, finished with lacquer, where the clip has not dented the finish. The trick with lacquer is that it MUST be allowed to completely cure.
 
Originally posted by philbaldwin
<br />How long would you need to leave a CA finish for to stop it dong this? Overnight?
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Phil when I finish barrels with CA, I leave them in my workshop for a week before building, so they are cured and hopefully any dull spots or clouding of the CA will have happened before building.

Another thing, there was a discussion on this a while ago, don`t put newly finished CA`d pens into a dark pen case, this will dull the finish.[8D]
 
Originally posted by CrazyBear
<br />All my kits clips come in a plastic sleeve. I leave this on the clip until it is tightened in place. then I remove the plastic sleeve
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I do the same, and the ones that don't come with the sleeve, I save them and reuse them.
 
How long would you need to leave a CA finish for to stop it dong this? Overnight?
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I usually assemble a CA/BLO finished pen immediately. Can you say IMPATIENT?? [B)] I have yet to have a problem with the clip. I do have a few spare plastic tube laying around that I actually used last night as I was assembling 4 acrylic pens. First time for that......[:D]
 
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