My method of finishing a pen - skip the MM

[Carl Fisher]

As I do more and more production style turning to replenish inventory between shows (3 shows in 4 weeks in May), I'm continuously improving and streamlining the process along the way. One of the places I have saved an obscene amount of time is in my finishing process.

I don't claim this is for everyone and I don't claim that it's the only way, but I have completely eliminated the need for micro mesh and it's all about pressure, speed, and quality of paper. I use nearly the same method on everything from wood, acrylics, PR, Alumilite, Ebonite, and vintage materials such as Cellulose Acetate and Celluloid.

For resins and CA finished pens, I follow this process:
1. Turn the blank to finished size. Typically this is TBC with calipers to match the final size plus about .01.
2. Sand dry through 600, 800, 1000 grit high quality paper. This is where knowing your material is critical. The softer the material and/or the lower the melting point, the slower you sand and the less pressure you apply. If your melting what you are sanding back into your blank, you're going too fast with too much pressure. I don't sand anything faster than 1400 and have gone as low as 500 for low melting point materials like cellulose acetate. IF the material calls for it, I will occasionally wet sand, but that has become the exception rather than the rule.
3. Apply Novus 3 polish at roughly the same RPM as your sanding.
4. Buff with blue rouge on a cotton-muslin wheel. (this may be a step backwards or at minimum a repeat of what the Novus 3 does but I find it helps to knock out any stubborn scratches)
5. Buff dry with a cotton-flannel finishing wheel to finish the polish up.

When buffing, you'll have to play around to find the speed that is right for the pressure you apply and the material you are buffing. It's all about learning your material.

That's it. Stabilized blanks can follow the same process but I typically skip the Novus and non-CA finished wood blanks will get a friction finish like Doctor's Woodshop or I've also been playing around with Craft Coat.

Using a good quality paper like Mirka or Klingspor Gold makes a huge difference. Also being able to go straight from your cutting tool to 600 makes a big difference. At worst, you should be able to start with 400. If you need to go below that, you need to work on your tool handling or sharpening. Not meaning that in a negative way, just an observation.

Just thought I'd share

 

[Dan Masshardt]

Where do you get the blue rouge?

 

[Carl Fisher]

It's the compound sold for the 2-part acrylic buffing system. Barry Gross developed the combination of wheels and compound and it's sold through PSI, Rockler, and a few others. I'm not sure which if any of our IAP vendors carry it, but it wouldn't hurt to check them out as well.

Acrylic Pen Buffing System at Penn State Industries

Also as far as learning your materials, you can usually tell during turning if you need to start out slower or faster on your sanding based on how easy the material turns or even if you see melting during drilling or turning. These are good indicators to start slow on the sanding.

 

[Dan Masshardt]

So you use that whole buffing wheel system?

 

[Carl Fisher]

Yes, so 3 sanding grits, quick shot of novus 3 then the 2-wheel buffing setup.

 

[Sub Vet 10]

I can kind of see your point, but with an expensive burl; laser inlay, or soft acrylic I would much rather hit it with 150 grit (150, 250, 360, 400 the box of 4 from WC) than risk blowin the darn things up.

 

[Ironwood]

I have taken my finishing routine in a similar direction. The time it saves me is amazing.

I typically take my blanks down with my tool to .15mm - .2mm over the component diameter. Then I use 400 grit W&D, then 600, I aim for .05mm oversize for a finished diameter.

Then I go straight to the buffing set-up I got from GPW
Mandrel Buffing System

it looks similar to the BG one you linked, my wheels don't seem as fluffy looking as those in the BG link.

I use the blue stick on the stiffer wheel, and buff the blank in all directions, then use the softer wheel to final buff, no polish applied.

This method gives me at least as good and usually much better than anything I achieved using micro mesh and plastic polish in a fraction of the time.

Takes me less than 2 minutes to sand and polish a pen barrel.

 

[Chasper]

I'm always doing high production turning, so I try anything anyone recommends to speed up the process. I've been trying this method today, but not getting up to speed yet.

Normally I start with 400 grit but today I've been starting with 600, I'm not comfortable with that yet, but it will probably work out. Sanding takes me 9 seconds per grit, so eliminate 400, add 800 and 1000 is a net time increase of 9 seconds. Also sanding is taking longer, I usually have the lathe at 4000 for sanding and use light touch, but I think the speed will come back after doing it for a while.

Using Novus is a new step, that is taking me 25 seconds, I should be able to cut that in half with practice so that will be a time increase of 12.5 seconds, I'm plus 21.5 seconds so far. Micro Mesh wet takes me a total of 25 seconds to dampen the pads, run through all nine of them, and wipe the blank dry. I buff with two wheels so that is no change.

Assuming I am able to cut the time it is taking to apply Novus and that I can get faster with the slow speed sanding, I would be 3.5 seconds better off. In a day when I'm making 50 pens that would save about 4.5 minutes. I'm afraid I would lose more time than that in sharpening my tools more often to make sure I can start with 600 grit.

I agree it is faster, but I already spent about half an hour tasting, timing and writing about trying this method, so I used up my time savings for the next month.

I'm already under 2 minutes to sand, MM and buff, but I'm going to try the stiffer wheel to see if I can eliminate MM and save 25 seconds.

 

[PenMan1]

I'm always doing high production turning, so I try anything anyone recommends to speed up the process. I've been trying this method today, but not getting up to speed yet.

Normally I start with 400 grit but today I've been starting with 600, I'm not comfortable with that yet, but it will probably work out. Sanding takes me 9 seconds per grit, so eliminate 400, add 800 and 1000 is a net time increase of 9 seconds. Also sanding is taking longer, I usually have the lathe at 4000 for sanding and use light touch, but I think the speed will come back after doing it for a while.

Using Novus is a new step, that is taking me 25 seconds, I should be able to cut that in half with practice so that will be a time increase of 12.5 seconds, I'm plus 21.5 seconds so far. Micro Mesh wet takes me a total of 25 seconds to dampen the pads, run through all nine of them, and wipe the blank dry. I buff with two wheels so that is no change.

Assuming I am able to cut the time it is taking to apply Novus and that I can get faster with the slow speed sanding, I would be 3.5 seconds better off. In a day when I'm making 50 pens that would save about 4.5 minutes. I'm afraid I would lose more time than that in sharpening my tools more often to make sure I can start with 600 grit.

I agree it is faster, but I already spent about half an hour tasting, timing and writing about trying this method, so I used up my time savings for the next month.

I'm already under 2 minutes to sand, MM and buff, but I'm going to try the stiffer wheel to see if I can eliminate MM and save 25 seconds.

This IS "spooky" similar to my methology. My main difference is that I go to MacGuire's PlastX after the Novus 2 and before the buff. But your times seem "dead on" to me.

 

[PenMan1]

Another consideration that needs to get figured into the mix is the type of material.

I almost NEVER make a wooden pen. They just don't sell for me. Since I DON'T DO wood, 99.999 percent of the time I use carbide tipped skews or Carbide insert cutting tools. I don't use gouges, and I DON'T Sharpen tools.

NOW, since i've put in my disclaimer about working almost EXCLUSIVELY with alternative materials, let me say this. IF I DID make wooden pens, I WOULD LIKELY use HSS tools. IMHO, HSS is much "kinder" to woodgrains than carbide tools, it is MUCH MORE FORGIVING to turner mistakes than Carbide (make a mistake with Carbide on wood at 4000 rpm and you get to see thousands of beautiful splinters) and wood cut with HSS can be "massaged" into beauty with plain ole sand paper. you make a mistake with a high gloss PR, there is a degree of difficulty removing tool marks. My experience has been that Carbide cuts these high gloss materials MUCH SMOOTHER and makes beginning sanding at 600 or 1,000 grit very possible.

WHENEVER I do a black Ebonite, Bakelite, PR, Celluloid, Lucite, PR, etc blank, I ALWAYS START with a brand new Carbide insert cutter. This costs me $2.60. In my shop, even if I discount the finishing time as $0, it is cost effective as I almost ALWAYS get an acceptable pen from this procedure. Starting with HSS on THESE materials my be "hit or miss" or unacceptably "time consuming" in my shop.

Your Mileage MAY VARY.

 

[Carl Fisher]

Definitely lots of good methods.

I'm not doing nearly the numbers Chasper or Andy do, so I guess I never looked at it down to the second. I do see the merit in the numbers though and the Novus step does take an extra amount of time and I'm still looking for a way to possibly eliminate that step. I'm interested to hear how adding a 3rd wheel to the buffing setup works out. If I can kill the 1000 grit and polish step or at least the polish step and go right to the buffing wheel, I'm up for the change.

My version has evolved naturally over time to my style and I'm sure it will continue to evolve. Until recently after 800 grit I was using 2 steps of MM pad before going to the polish. I made the switch to the single 1000 grit step and didn't see any degradation in my finish quality so it became a permanent change and saved me one sanding step.

On the topic of HSS vs Carbide, I use both. I have a very shallow gouge that I use to do 95% of the turning and then use my carbide insert to hit my final size and finish pass. I never did get the hang of the skew.

Because I'm not doing a finish pass with the gouge, I don't worry about a mirror finish on my edge. A few seconds on the white stone of my grinder brings me right back to the level of sharpness I need to hog through material with ease. That saves the life of my carbide by only costing me about 10 seconds every half dozen pens or so. The tool tells me when it's time to touch it up. Since my carbide insert costs are not in the range of Andy's, I'm happy to sacrifice a minimal amount of my time to save some $$ on carbide.

I just want to stress that there are no shortcuts. Everyone's process is different because everyone evolves it to their unique style. Difference in applied pressure, different sanding media, different speeds, etc... it's all about what you are comfortable with. Following any of the processes discussed above is a good bootstrap up into the concept, but you'll likely end up making changes to fit your style.

 

[Quality Pen]

I came across this post searching the topic of 800 grit.

800 seems to be the "forgotten" grit... every kitt (four letter word now) I see has up to 600, even 400 sometimes. Then the next little packages will usually start at 1000 or higher.

What are people using for their 800 grit? I like high quality Micromesh but can you get something simple as 3M? Last thing I would want is some low quality sandpaper that has a nice piece of 120 on it! :biggrin:

 

[Tiger]

Just came across this and am wondering if there's any update/refinements to this? I haven't been able to match the finish i get with MM with buffing but that could be my buffing technique.

 

[Carl Fisher]

Yes, I'm now skipping the Novus completely.

400-600-800-1000 sanding progression and then right to the buffers.

Oh and to answer the question above about 800 grit, I stocked up on a bunch from Klingspor's a while back.

 

[Ironwood]

Just came across this and am wondering if there's any update/refinements to this? I haven't been able to match the finish i get with MM with buffing but that could be my buffing technique.

I just re-read my post. The only thing I have changed is, I take it down closer to finished size with the tool so there is less sanding. I still use 400 then 600 then onto the buff.
I am still happy with my finish, so I see no need to change.

 

[Tiger]

Thanks Carl and Brad. Brad I've seen some of your work and it looks great, amazed that you can get there so soon with just 600, will try this on my next pen. I've got the 3 wheel Beall buffs but i don't really use the carnauba wheel, i notice that you have the 2 wheel setup, not sure that makes a huge difference though.