GluBoost Questions

[Yellow River Woodturning]

I've started to experiment with GluBoost as a pen finish to reduce the amount of time each pen takes to make. So far, I've only tried the Mark Dreyer method (2 coats medium, 3 coats thin, lathe off w/ accelerator in between each coat, wet sand with MicroMesh) and I've noticed some problems. I haven't been able to get a consistent thickness across the blank and have sanded through the finish multiple times. I also end up with ridges and bumps that I can't seem to take out with sanding. I've also noticed rather large scratches in my finish, which I'm not entirely sure about.

Does anyone have any tips on building up a better quality finish with GluBoost? Should I use a buffing wheel for the smaller scratches? Also, would applying with the lathe on help? If it makes a difference, I use Stick Fast 2-step CA polish (satin and gloss) that I buff with a shop towel. Any tips are greatly appreciated!

 

[derekdd]

How fast are you spinning while applying? I'm wondering if the speed is contributing to your ridges.

I've watched Mark's video on this process, also and am tempted.

I'll be curious to hear what others have to say.

 

[Yellow River Woodturning]

How fast are you spinning while applying? I'm wondering if the speed are contributing to your ridges.

I've watched Mark's video on this process, also and am tempted.

I'll be curious to hear what others have to say.

Currently, I'm not spinning the blanks while applying the finish. My previous CA finishes have been applied at 480 RPM (the lowest my lathe will go), and those have turned out good.

 

[Darios]

I'll be curious to hear what others have to say.

Likewise. I've noticed my efforts have created inconsistent results, with me needing to sand it off and start over more than once.

 

[wimkluck]

I did a jr monarch today with glueboost. I applying the CA at 350 RPM. Put a drop on a small foam sheet and that works fine.
Most of the times I do 3 coats thin and 3 coats medium. Then sanding starting p600.

 

[Yellow River Woodturning]

I did a jr monarch today with glueboost. I applying the CA at 350 RPM. Put a drop on a small foam sheet and that works fine.
Most of the times I do 3 coats thin and 3 coats medium. Then sanding starting p600.

I'll give that a shot quick, I've got a HRB blank all ready for finishing. I'll post the results afterward. Also, what kind of foam sheet do you use?

 

[bugradx2]

I'm in the "lathe turning slow" camp also. I'd have to block at my minimum speed on the belts but 450 sounds ballpark. I have a friend with a digital control and he drops to 100 rpm with very nice results.

I think Mark's method is great, I've just not been great at spinning the lathe by hand to apply my GluBoost

 

[Todd in PA]

I use the foam craft paper as my applicator and apply with the lathe running slow.

I turn the wood slightly past the desired diameter by about .010 and then apply Gluboost to build back up and past the finished diameter, say .015. Then sand it to final specs.

After GB, I go straight to wet sanding using micromesh, usually starting at 2,400 to knock out any ridges or bumps (I don't use the 1200 or 1800 on pens). Once I have the ca leveled, I run up through the rest of the micromesh and then Beall Buff to remove any small scratches.

 

[derekdd]

I use the foam craft paper as my applicator and apply with the lathe running slow.

I turn the wood slightly past the desired diameter by about .010 and then apply Gluboost to build back up and past the finished diameter, say .015. Then sand it to final specs.

After GB, I go straight to wet sanding using micromesh, usually starting at 2,400 to knock out any ridges or bumps (I don't use the 1200 or 1800 on pens). Once I have the ca leveled, I run up through the rest of the micromesh and then Beall Buff to remove any small scratches.

Wow, I'm wondering if the foam you use to apply is giving you that smooth a finish to start with?

I use shop towel to apply CA, then start my wet sanding at 800 to knock down ripples before going 1500-12k on micro mesh.

 

[Yellow River Woodturning]

Here it is, not the greatest wood to experiment on but it turned out fairly good. I applied 3 coats of thin and 3 coats of medium (by use of a shop towel) with accelerator in between each coat. I then sanded with MicroMesh and polished. I did the sanding stage twice after I noticed ripples, and attempted to use #000 steel wool to remove them. Long story short, there is now steel wool all over my shop.

I'm going to continue experimenting with lathe-on application as it seems to give a better finish, and I'm definitely gonna try using some foam pads instead of towels. Thanks for the help everybody!

 

[wimkluck]

I'll give that a shot quick, I've got a HRB blank all ready for finishing. I'll post the results afterward. Also, what kind of foam sheet do you use?

I think you call it foam craft paper. I can tell you where I buy it but that's not in out country.

3 coat thin and 3 coats medium glueboost no sanding

Close up no sanding

One sand and polished the upper one not.
I just finished my pen and the end of both tubes were damaged. I will order new tubes and redo the pen.

 

[Brandy]

I apply GluBoost with the lathe on. It's supposed to be a self leveling glue so I will let it spin 10-15 seconds before I use the activator and have noticed significantly fewer ridges. This works especially well with the thicker glue. I will also sand with 1500 micromesh between the thick coats to knock down any ridges that are left. Once I'm happy with it I will sand through the rest of the micromesh.

 

[leehljp]

To get up to speed quickly in getting enough to be able to sand without going through, quit thinking "number of coats". The light pressure that a 250lb physically fit person applies with the applicator - that would be considered heavy handed by a 140lb person - meaning the application of CA per coat is purely subjective across a multitude of pen turners. The ONLY way to be consistent in coat thickness is to use calipers and measure each time to see how much build up you have. Once this is done and a few dozen pens have been made with this method, then a determined amount can be guessed fairly accurately and the calipers can be put aside if one wishes.

AS to sanding through - if it is one side, or one spot, that is a sign that there may be a small wobble in the mandrel or an out of round/non-concentricness in the blank. Either a mandrel problem or lathe head stock/tail stock misalignment.

Scratches come from to course of sandpaper. Pens are not flat woodwork. Starting with Finer sandpaper cuts out a lot of "scratches" for the beginner. Finer sandpaper does take a few minutes longer to get to size, but when mistakes are made with more course SP, the time is shorter for starting with finer sandpaper.

That old adage of finish needing course wood to hold better doesn't apply to CA, or most other kind of finishes today.

 

[leehljp]

Wow, I'm wondering if the foam you use to apply is giving you that smooth a finish to start with?

I use shop towel to apply CA, then start my wet sanding at 800 to knock down ripples before going 1500-12k on micro mesh.

Before foam there were other plastic type of finish applicators, including the latex gloves (that get caught occasionally ) and that has been so much smoother than I personally ever got with paper towels of any kind. I didn't have a learning curve to achieve a smooth finish, and never had any ripples either with those applicators. For me - Ripples were an early learning curve that was more or less the combination of "quantity of CA" applied, Paper Towel, temp and humidity swings.

 

[Kenny Durrant]

I'm in the process of finishing up a few pens. Taking a break I thought of this thread. As far as steel wool goes, which I use occasionally, works well but it will often leave splinters in the blank. I started using Scotch Bright, at least that's what I think it's called. It's a plastic fiber pad that works well and it's not as aggressive. I put a thin coat of CA then buff the shine off to seal and have a smooth surface to start with. On a side note if your engraving you can wipe off the over burn and it doesn't seem to burn the edges with a coat or two of finish before engraving.

 

[KenB259]

If you had no issues with your CA prior to using GluBoost, then I would suggest you just use the same technique that worked for you. I switched to GluBoost and applied it like I've done every other CA finish. Works just fine

 

[mg_dreyer]

If you pm me a way to contact you (phone number) I can call you and we can talk. Wednesday is bad but I am open Thursday all day and Friday morning. I will go through everything I know and you can take it from there

Please take me up on this.

 

[Yellow River Woodturning]

If you pm me a way to contact you (phone number) I can call you and we can talk. Wednesday is bad but I am open Thursday all day and Friday morning. I will go through everything I know and you can take it from there

Please take me up on this.

PM sent, thanks for the offer!

 

[Roly]

To get up to speed quickly in getting enough to be able to sand without going through, quit thinking "number of coats". The light pressure that a 250lb physically fit person applies with the applicator - that would be considered heavy handed by a 140lb person - meaning the application of CA per coat is purely subjective across a multitude of pen turners. The ONLY way to be consistent in coat thickness is to use calipers and measure each time to see how much build up you have. Once this is done and a few dozen pens have been made with this method, then a determined amount can be guessed fairly accurately and the calipers can be put aside if one wishes.

AS to sanding through - if it is one side, or one spot, that is a sign that there may be a small wobble in the mandrel or an out of round/non-concentricness in the blank. Either a mandrel problem or lathe head stock/tail stock misalignment.

Scratches come from to course of sandpaper. Pens are not flat woodwork. Starting with Finer sandpaper cuts out a lot of "scratches" for the beginner. Finer sandpaper does take a few minutes longer to get to size, but when mistakes are made with more course SP, the time is shorter for starting with finer sandpaper.

That old adage of finish needing course wood to hold better doesn't apply to CA, or most other kind of finishes today.

I use very similar technique, but I sand along the blank to smooth it i n between every 2-3 applied coats. After my last sand I apply a couple of thin coats then polish. I use Gluboost exclusively and have had no problems.

 

[Bean_Counter]

Off topic kind of but does glu boost have fumes/irritants like normal CA

 

[bugradx2]

Off topic kind of but does glu boost have fumes/irritants like normal CA

there is a smell but (to me) it's almost sweet? Compared with normal CA fume strength it's almost nothing. Some CA glues have really strong fumes that can be overpowering and GluBoost really doesn't.

 

[bugradx2]

looking back at this post and realize I really like the grain of the wood you posted in your photos. Mind sharing what it is?

I've started to experiment with GluBoost as a pen finish to reduce the amount of time each pen takes to make. So far, I've only tried the Mark Dreyer method (2 coats medium, 3 coats thin, lathe off w/ accelerator in between each coat, wet sand with MicroMesh) and I've noticed some problems. I haven't been able to get a consistent thickness across the blank and have sanded through the finish multiple times. I also end up with ridges and bumps that I can't seem to take out with sanding. I've also noticed rather large scratches in my finish, which I'm not entirely sure about.

Does anyone have any tips on building up a better quality finish with GluBoost? Should I use a buffing wheel for the smaller scratches? Also, would applying with the lathe on help? If it makes a difference, I use Stick Fast 2-step CA polish (satin and gloss) that I buff with a shop towel. Any tips are greatly appreciated

 

[Aces-High]

I've started to experiment with GluBoost as a pen finish to reduce the amount of time each pen takes to make. So far, I've only tried the Mark Dreyer method (2 coats medium, 3 coats thin, lathe off w/ accelerator in between each coat, wet sand with MicroMesh) and I've noticed some problems. I haven't been able to get a consistent thickness across the blank and have sanded through the finish multiple times. I also end up with ridges and bumps that I can't seem to take out with sanding. I've also noticed rather large scratches in my finish, which I'm not entirely sure about.

Does anyone have any tips on building up a better quality finish with GluBoost? Should I use a buffing wheel for the smaller scratches? Also, would applying with the lathe on help? If it makes a difference, I use Stick Fast 2-step CA polish (satin and gloss) that I buff with a shop towel. Any tips are greatly appreciated!

Have you looked at JohnU's YouTube on how he does Gluboost? I find Marks misleading, a bit.

 

[Yellow River Woodturning]

looking back at this post and realize I really like the grain of the wood you posted in your photos. Mind sharing what it is?

The wood is Honduran Rosewood Burl, the piece used in that pen was the least figured piece I had. It's one of my favorite woods to turn, but my wallet hates it. I picked up that piece from Woodturningz.