How do you examine your finish to see if it's good?

[KMCloonan]

I have a question That has probably been asked before, but a quick search did not turn up anything helpful.

I have been using a plain CA finish for many years - I don't really need to discuss methods of obtaining a good CA finish - my question is more about the light used to examine the finish. When I finish my pens, I do multiple (often around 10) coats of CA, I then wet sand with micromesh, and when I am done with that, I apply a plastic polish - I have been using Meguiar's PlastX polish. Sometimes I set up my buffer, but not very often. When the polish looks good on my lathe, I remove the blank, and take it over to my workbench for assembly. I have 5000 lumen LED shop lights in my shop.

When the pen is oriented with the shop light (parallel to the light), the finish looks ok. When I turn the pen 90 degrees, perpendicular to the light, the finish often looks awful, like some 8 year old with mayonnaise all over their hands handled the pen. It looks like smears, smudges, whatever. Ok, I may be exaggerating slightly, but it seems like I am putting the pen back on the lathe a lot more often, and re-doing the micromesh, focusing on sanding lengthwise along the blank, and repeating the polishing. I think it's only been recently that I noticed the finish in the perpendicular light. Maybe I was just ignorantly happy with my finish before.

Anyway, any tips for examining your finish?

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[Todd in PA]

Same method for me. Parallel from my eye to the overhead light in my shop. Angled to where the white reflection is the widest, and I'm looking at the white reflection, not the pen.

I used to finish it, hold it up to the light, see scratches, put is back on the lathe, and wet sand it again. Sometimes repeating the sanding three or four times. My wife got me the Beall Buffing system as a present a while back (I helped by suggesting it). Now I pretty much rush the wet sanding, and the wheels take care of whatever I missed. Huge time saver, and better end product.

 

[KMCloonan]

Same method for me. Parallel from my eye to the overhead light in my shop. Angled to where the white reflection is the widest, and I'm looking at the white reflection, not the pen.

I used to finish it, hold it up to the light, see scratches, put is back on the lathe, and wet sand it again. Sometimes repeating the sanding three or four times. My wife got me the Beall Buffing system as a present a while back (I helped by suggesting it). Now I pretty much rush the wet sanding, and the wheels take care of whatever I missed. Huge time saver, and better end product.

Thanks Todd. I'll go back to using my buffer more.

 

[jttheclockman]

I just do my sanding and MM and shut lathe off and go lengthwise every grit. I too use a plastic compound and then polish made by Micromesh. I do not use any loop or anything like that. I use naked eyes and so far my finish looks pretty darn good. I am happy with it.

 

[TonyL]

Just what I happened to do: examine finish using a 10x or 20x loupe held under a bright light while holding the open at various angles to reveal scratches.

 

[egnald]

I don't really do anything special except for just taking my glasses off and having a look. I'm so nearsighted that taking my glasses off is almost like using a magnifying glass.

I rarely find anything like a scratch. I attribute it to my CA regimen of putting on lots of very thin coats. Far more CA goes into my trash can on the paper towels than goes on the blank.

I also start with 400 grit sandpaper then 600 and 800 before applying the CA. I keep my tools sharp so using lower grits puts more scratches in than they take out. Of course, lightly sand running and sand lengthwise with the lathe off for every grit including the MicroMesh after the CA has been applied.

My results are always virtually scratch free (to my naked eye anyway).

Dave