I have been doing CA finishes for at least a year now and have had no issue until recently. I think because I have to go so thick with the number of coats to cover the cigar band I have had some issues with voids or pockets in the CA at the edges of the cigar band. My method had always been to use thin CA only with a little BLO on the papertowel and it usually works well. My goal was to have a finish that needed no sanding, just polishing. I applied the finish with the lathe spinning fast (2,500 or so). I know that a lot of people suggested turning at a slower speed to apply CA, but mine system was working well so I never tried it.
Recently on a particular pen I was having some difficulty, I had to build the pen up a good bit with the CA. It was going to take 50 or more coats of thin CA. It was on a closed end mandrel on my metal lathe. I dialed back the speed to about 600 or 700 and tried to put some medium CA on it to speed up the process of building it up. Well it worked great. Much better than what I was doing. In the end I had to micro mesh the finish to 12,000 and it looked much better than the pens I had made before. I have also tried applying the Ca without the BLO and found that works well too. Although I can't tell the difference once I'm finished with the pen. So now this is what I do:
1. I rub BLO onto the pen to bring out the grain and remove the excess with a papertowel.
2. I do three coats of thin at the slow speed spreading it over the entire pen. If it's not smooth that's okay (at least for me)
3. I then do from 5 to 20 coats of medium in the same fashion to get the coverage I need on the cigar label. I let it spin a minute or two between coats because sometimes it is not completely dry. I don't use accelerator. I also used to apply a lot of pressure when applying the CA, now I do it more gently with the goal of getting the pen covered, rather than smooth. Although it is still mostly smooth. I try now to apply just enough pressure on the first pass of applying the CA to barely touch the papertowel so I can transfer as much of the CA to the pen as possible and then increase the pressure, but still use a light touch.
4. Once I get all the coats on the pen, I set it aside for an hour or so, while I do something else.
5. I put it back on the lathe and using very wet MM (helps to create a slurry) I sand a good bit with the 1,500 grit till I get it completely smooth with no ridges or bumps.
6. I then MM on down to 12,000, wipe the pen off very good with a papertowel and then polish with a final finish product I got from cue components. If I have a pen that has a small low spot near the band that I can't seem to fill with CA, I leave off the polishing step because I find the polish compount sticks in the low spot.
Anyway, that's what I do now. It's another case of doing something the same way for a long time thinking it was working just fine (which it was) and using the tips from the forums and changing the process only to find it far superior to what I was doing.
Eventhough I now have the sanding step, I am able to make the pen in about the same time or slightly more because I don't have to use so many coats of thin CA.
So thanks to everyone that posted hints.
I also, had Johnny CNC make me some special bushings that fit on the shaft of the sanding mills I use from RHerrell and Bigshed and now sand with 120 or 240 grit each end of all my barrels.
These two things have really helped improve my pen making.
For those of you having a hard time with the CA you might try some of these things if they make sense to you. Oh, I also use glue from Monty. It works much better than the store bought kind, at least for me.
Recently on a particular pen I was having some difficulty, I had to build the pen up a good bit with the CA. It was going to take 50 or more coats of thin CA. It was on a closed end mandrel on my metal lathe. I dialed back the speed to about 600 or 700 and tried to put some medium CA on it to speed up the process of building it up. Well it worked great. Much better than what I was doing. In the end I had to micro mesh the finish to 12,000 and it looked much better than the pens I had made before. I have also tried applying the Ca without the BLO and found that works well too. Although I can't tell the difference once I'm finished with the pen. So now this is what I do:
1. I rub BLO onto the pen to bring out the grain and remove the excess with a papertowel.
2. I do three coats of thin at the slow speed spreading it over the entire pen. If it's not smooth that's okay (at least for me)
3. I then do from 5 to 20 coats of medium in the same fashion to get the coverage I need on the cigar label. I let it spin a minute or two between coats because sometimes it is not completely dry. I don't use accelerator. I also used to apply a lot of pressure when applying the CA, now I do it more gently with the goal of getting the pen covered, rather than smooth. Although it is still mostly smooth. I try now to apply just enough pressure on the first pass of applying the CA to barely touch the papertowel so I can transfer as much of the CA to the pen as possible and then increase the pressure, but still use a light touch.
4. Once I get all the coats on the pen, I set it aside for an hour or so, while I do something else.
5. I put it back on the lathe and using very wet MM (helps to create a slurry) I sand a good bit with the 1,500 grit till I get it completely smooth with no ridges or bumps.
6. I then MM on down to 12,000, wipe the pen off very good with a papertowel and then polish with a final finish product I got from cue components. If I have a pen that has a small low spot near the band that I can't seem to fill with CA, I leave off the polishing step because I find the polish compount sticks in the low spot.
Anyway, that's what I do now. It's another case of doing something the same way for a long time thinking it was working just fine (which it was) and using the tips from the forums and changing the process only to find it far superior to what I was doing.
Eventhough I now have the sanding step, I am able to make the pen in about the same time or slightly more because I don't have to use so many coats of thin CA.
So thanks to everyone that posted hints.
I also, had Johnny CNC make me some special bushings that fit on the shaft of the sanding mills I use from RHerrell and Bigshed and now sand with 120 or 240 grit each end of all my barrels.
These two things have really helped improve my pen making.
For those of you having a hard time with the CA you might try some of these things if they make sense to you. Oh, I also use glue from Monty. It works much better than the store bought kind, at least for me.