Cloudy CA Finish

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jason_r

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Apr 1, 2008
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Chandler, AZ, USA.
So... I finally got around to putting a CA finish on a pen. Simple mahogany Cigar.

Turned the pen, sanded to 600, put on the finish after watching Russ's video.
Polished it up with MM... it was perfect.

Assembling the pen, found out that the transmission holder (top of lower section) was smaller than the bushing. Quickly disassembled, put it back and sanded that end down. Reapplied the finish and it was cloudy on that end.
Sanded it off.. reapplied... still cloudy.

Let it sit overnight.

Came back, sanded off the whole finish and reapplied. The end that was cloudy before... still cloudy. The rest was mostly good, but there was a cloudy band on it.

Turned it back down to the tube and started over.

What should I have done?

Thanks
 
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Somewhere along the line you either got moister or oil on the blank.

Could have picked it up from your hands when you were sanding it back out. I got to the point if doing a wood pen, I ALWAYS let the blank sit overnight in a bag after turning then handled it with gloves for the finish.

It only takes a very small amount of moister to cloudy a finish but in your case since you sanded it all the way back to start, I would have to say either it wasnt dry completely yet and the heat brought out some of the left over moister or somehow you got oil on it and it soaked in..
 
jason_r said:
So... I finally got around to putting a CA finish on a pen. Simple mahogany Cigar.

Turned the pen, sanded to 600, put on the finish after watching Russ's video.
Polished it up with MM... it was perfect.

Assembling the pen, found out that the transmission holder (top of lower section) was smaller than the bushing. Quickly disassembled, put it back and sanded that end down. Reapplied the finish and it was cloudy on that end.
Sanded it off.. reapplied... still cloudy.

Let it sit overnight.

Came back, sanded off the whole finish and reapplied. The end that was cloudy before... still cloudy. The rest was mostly good, but there was a cloudy band on it.

Turned it back down to the tube and started over.

What should I have done?

Thanks
Click to expand...

If you were watching Russ's video you were finishing with CA/BLO. You most likely put the BLO on first instead of the CA. It is very easy to make that mistake. I certainly did. BLO on wood must dry before you can put CA over it and that can take several days.

The correct procedure is to put the CA on the wood first and the BLO goes on second to help lubricate and cure the CA. No oil on the wood unless it it completely dry... else it will cloud.
:wink::wink::wink:
 
Bree said:
If you were watching Russ's video you were finishing with CA/BLO. You most likely put the BLO on first instead of the CA. It is very easy to make that mistake. I certainly did. BLO on wood must dry before you can put CA over it and that can take several days.

The correct procedure is to put the CA on the wood first and the BLO goes on second to help lubricate and cure the CA. No oil on the wood unless it it completely dry... else it will cloud.
:wink::wink::wink:
Click to expand...


I have heard that several times now-but I always put BLO/CA on and so far haven't had a problem. (I put blo on the paper towel and then ca and apply and repeat as many times as I want coats)
 
Bree said:
If you were watching Russ's video you were finishing with CA/BLO. You most likely put the BLO on first instead of the CA. It is very easy to make that mistake. I certainly did. BLO on wood must dry before you can put CA over it and that can take several days.

The correct procedure is to put the CA on the wood first and the BLO goes on second to help lubricate and cure the CA. No oil on the wood unless it it completely dry... else it will cloud.
:wink::wink::wink:
Click to expand...

Nope... didn't go BLO/CA. Definitely went CA/BLO.

After working through my next attempt, I'm thinking that what I thought was cloudy was where I hadn't gotten a heavy enough build and had sanded through the CA. It was perfectly smooth, all the grain was filled, but no gloss.

Why do I think this? Because on the attempt tonight I got a similar result and it went away when I built a thicker layer. (which I tried yesterday, but evidently missed). I was able to progressively eliminate areas that weren't glossy by building up more CA.
 
ca finish

I had to take apart a americanna the other day to do some repairs and I had to put on the lathe to cut down my mistake. I only had to lightly sand and re do the ca finish. I have yet to have a failure using Mr William Young's method found in the tutorial section of IAP. I had problems with ca untill I used his method... David
 
Last edited:
jocat54 said:
I have heard that several times now-but I always put BLO/CA on and so far haven't had a problem. (I put blo on the paper towel and then ca and apply and repeat as many times as I want coats)
Click to expand...

Count yourself lucky. If the BLO gets on the wood undried you are at risk. The more undried oil on the wood, the greater the risk of clouding. Just that simple. I had one that clouded a couple of weeks after I made it. Ruined a beautiful pen.
:wink::wink::wink:
 
Once clouded, how do you go about fixing it?

Sand it back down to bare wood, let it dry and finish with CA again?
 
In this case, just put on more CA until you have a thick enough layer you don't cut through.

Just did this same thing on a desert ironwood blank. Had a couple
spots that looked cloudy. Since I'd turned the blank too small on one
end, I had built up an extremely thick CA layer. I thought "there's no
way I cut through that.. maybe I can sand it out.

Wrong... just turned it into a cloudy ring where I sanded. Put on more CA and keep going.
 
Cool. I'll give it a try. I have a Black Walnut I'm working on. Bottom half of the pen looks awesome - top, not so awesome...
 
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