Help! Lost My Touch with CA Finish!

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penicillin

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Feb 27, 2019
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I made a lot of pens for holiday gifts. Most of them had CA finishes:

4 coats of thin.
4 coats of medium.
Light sanding with strips 150, 240, 320, 400, 650.
Micro-mesh all 9 pads, wet.
Hut Ultra Gloss Plastic Polish.
Done.

I admit, not all the sanding steps are necessary, but they don't hurt, either. (... as long as you don't take off the finish.) All those pens turned out beautifully. The CA finish was clear, shiny, and smooth.

After that, we got a "cold snap." In California, that means 40s-50s. My CA finishes did not turn out so well. They are "lumpy." I attributed it to the cold.

Now that it is warm again, my CA finishes are still lumpy. Somehow, I lost my touch, and I can't blame it on the cold.

My glues are all less than one year old and were never exposed to extreme heat or cold. I use Stick-Fast brand. I have tried different applicators - multiple types of paper towels, craft foam, plastic baggies, and more. I have tried different glues - all thin, thin + medium, flexible, the Stick-Fast finishing kit. There is no real difference - they turn out lumpy.

Whatever I did worked well a few months ago, but I lost my touch. Now my CA finishes are clear, but "lumpy." My goal is a smooth, hard, shiny finish. Not too thick.

Am I missing something obvious? What would you suggest?
 
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leehljp

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Stickfast does fine for some, but I have read on this forum of more people with problems with that brand than any other.

Cold does change the dynamics of finishing with CA (and other finishes too.)
 

mmayo

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Tehachapi, CA
Maybe real cold, but I store my CA in a mini fridge in my shop. I am careful to take it out of the fridge and leave it sealed overnight to fill my bottles for use. After that back in the fridge sealed well. Never had lumpy. My thick and medium are at least two years old and work fine. Thin and Pen Finish CA goes fast so age is never an issue.

Me thinks there is something else causing these lumps.
 

magpens

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Do the "lumps" not smooth out when you sand ... especially with the 150 grit ?
I can see "ridges" but not "lumps" happening. . I cope with that all the time and just carefully sand them down ... takes time and good lighting and being very careful.
The 150 grit, of course, leaves marks and you have to get those out with the higher grits. . If possible, I start the sanding at 320 grit or 400 grit, but that is not always possible.
I only sand in a back-and-forth motion parallel to the length, with the lathe motor off and turning the headstock by hand.
 
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webberville, mi
My CA finishes almost always start out rough. Some are rougher than others, but nowhere near what I want. My finishing and polishing process resolves that. Unless I'm having a particularly bad day, I never start with a grit coarser than 400. The key is experience, patience and a light touch.
I don't think ambient temp is an issue but high humidity may have an impact.
 

pianomanpj

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Augusta, Maine, USA.
When I get ridges, I break out the carbide tool and smooth everything down, being careful not to cut through the finish. I then sand with 400, 600, 800 and 1000 grit papers and then hit the buffing station. Here in Maine my shop often stays below 40 degrees (sometimes below 30) in the winter.
 

TonyL

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From among those that you identified, the only variable that changed is the age and fluctuation in temperature of the CA. Before throwing anything out, how about buying a new bottle of the same brand of CA and repeating your process? I have not had CA go bad on me (for years), but I am sure it does. I have also never experienced the "lumps. I have seen it thicken, but still highly easy to apply smoothly.

Another possibility/variable is the material/substrate/type of wood.

Otherwise, I am as stumped as you are.
 

Sly Dog

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Is the "lumpiness" present before you apply the Hut plastic polish, or after (if you know)? I'm wondering if the heat generated by the plastic polish could be a cause of an uneven CA finish...
 

rd_ab_penman

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Red Deer, Alberta, Canada.
I never ever have any problems with CA.

Les
 

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penicillin

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I went to my local woodworking store (Rockler) and replaced my StickFast thin, medium, and flexible CA glues with fresh stock. I also noticed that they had GluBoost "Fill 'n' Finish" in thin and regular, so I bought one of each.

I will safely dispose of my old CA glues and try the new ones. We'll see if that solves the issues.
 

penicillin

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Update: I tried the new GluBoost Fill 'n' Finish CA finishes on four pens, with good success:

http://www.penturners.org/forum/f28/fyi-rockler-has-gluboost-store-159942/

I think one or more of the following may explain my CA finish issues:

* Old glue.
Maybe. If it wasn't the problem, then it would become a problem soon enough.

* How I applied the CA glue.
I think this might be the issue. In the past, I applied the glue very quickly, then left it alone. I think this caused the streaks and ribbons and roughness of the problem CA finishes. This time, I take my time and am more careful to keep spreading it back and forth until it looks and feels smooth or starts to get sticky, whichever comes first. By "starts to get sticky", I really mean, "slightly less than slippery."

* Better touch at sanding.
Once the CA is applied and cured, I am now a little more aggressive in sanding with the first grit to get the surface smooth. I think I may have left too much roughness before, roughness that could not get smooth with subsequent finer grits. After that, I am now less aggressive than before with the remaining grits. I think the light touch on remainder of the finishing also helps.
 

leehljp

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Update: I tried the new GluBoost Fill 'n' Finish CA finishes on four pens, with good success:

* Better touch at sanding.
Once the CA is applied and cured, I am now a little more aggressive in sanding with the first grit to get the surface smooth. I think I may have left too much roughness before, roughness that could not get smooth with subsequent finer grits. After that, I am now less aggressive than before with the remaining grits. I think the light touch on remainder of the finishing also helps.

There is an EASIER way to get it round from the roughness - turn the lathe on and use the scraper or the skew laying flat like a scraper and barely touch the CA'd blank to smooth it out. It will be smooth. However if you use sandpaper only, it will sand more than the high spots in places and at times, creating sand-through. And, requiring another application of CA.

I never used sandpaper for getting rid of bumps as it in an inaccurate science. The scraper technique produces consistency all the way around.
 
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