Lathe on or lathe off CA finishes?

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MR2MAN

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Jan 5, 2011
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Baton Rouge, LA
I started off doing the lathe off method.... Add coats and wait until dry (ie: the psi finishing kit). Good results but it takes hours! I have also tried the lathe on approach with mixed results. Sometimes the paper peel sticks, other times the CA clouds up in places. Lathe on is definitely faster but lathe off seems more consistent. What is the consensus on the matter?
 
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I never heard of large off.
Clouding is usually an issue with moisture. If you wipe down your blanks before ca with a liquid you must make sure it dries. If you use accelerator, too much of that causes clouding too
As per paper sticking, maybe you linger too long? Usually, if you use 3-4 drops of ca per coat , 3 seconds of paper towel, going back and forth 2-3 times is more than enough.
 
I've done lathe off for the last year with great success. I can put on 20 coats in about 20 minutes. The first two coats seem to dry fast (less than a minute). After that, I give it a short blast of accelerator every three coats. Sand, micromesh, polish, and buff and the pen is finished.
 
The moisture you experienced is from either the high humidity, green wood, alcohol rub down before adding CA. The heat of the curing CA in cool moist humidity will draw the moisture in also.

Having said that I haven't heard of CA applied with the lathe off. I know that some use "dipping" in which blanks are dipped into liquid acrylic, lacquer and sometimes other finishes. All of these take time. CA finishes are usually done on the lathe with it running simply because it is faster. It is hard to do most other finishes to a thick protective layer with the lathe turning. The Fast finish of CA on the lathe was one of the 2 characteristics (I believe there were the two) that made it so popular. Its toughness was the other characteristic. It seems like I read this from Russ Fairfield a few years ago.
 
I also have another question about CA finishes. What is the best way to apply a CA finish or something similar to undulating turnings? By "undulating" I mean highly vallyed or piked. Elevation or figure, in the sculpting not in the wood itself.
 
My "lathe on" consists of a couple drops of BLO on a shop towel, then 2-3 drops of med CA onthat spot. While the thathe is on (~1800 RPM) move the towel across the blank repeatedly, then repeat until it has built up enough. Then wet sand MM/polish.
 
MR2MAN said:
Clean with DA until dry,
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IF you use this on the blank before "turning" (lathe turned on) - This is most probably your problem with cloudy finish. It is not something new with you, using denatured alcohol and cloudy CA finish have been synonymous almost since the beginning of CA finishes.
 
MR2MAN said:
I also have another question about CA finishes. What is the best way to apply a CA finish or something similar to undulating turnings? By "undulating" I mean highly vallyed or piked. Elevation or figure, in the sculpting not in the wood itself.
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Another way to do this, and a few do but most don't - is to use the small parts bags that the pen comes in. Place a few drops of medium (or thin) on the bag with your finger in it, (with the lathe ON of course) and rub this on the spinning blank. Fairly smooth application. PArts bags or rubber gloves, the CA goes on smoother but it does not cure as quickly as it does with using paper towel.

Most people achieve this with paper towel. The difference between you with the valleys or undulating and them with smooth application is simply experience. Experience with how much CA, watching closely and smoothing with a delicate touch and motion.

Try to change the focus from "completing a pen" to "mastering the finish". Once the mastering of the finish, or at least getting a good "feel" for applying, the pen making quality will take a great step up.

Quite a few people here took some plain old pine or other common wood and just practiced with a skew or scraper and learned that; then focused on achieving a consistent finish and learned the basics of that. It wasn't easy for some but for others it was. The key was focusing on learning the steps, not getting through with a pen. When the steps are learned with the experience, the finished pen with be there!
 
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MR2MAN said:
My "lathe on" consists of a couple drops of BLO on a shop towel, then 2-3 drops of med CA onthat spot. While the thathe is on (~1800 RPM) move the towel across the blank repeatedly, then repeat until it has built up enough. Then wet sand MM/polish.
Click to expand...

I think you have your lathe spinning to fast and leaving the paper towel on to long. The combination of these two problems is making the ca dry before you finish doing you wipe down with the towel.

My lathe speed is around 300 rpm. I also do one swipe across the blank with a blue shop towel.
 
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