Paper towels?

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I sometimes use paper towels for thin CA, but nowadays I mostly use the little plastic baggies that our kits come in. Slip one of those over your finger and go to town!
And like Alexander said, if I use paper towels, it's just the cheap kind...
 
I use whatever the wife's bought for the house then sneak them into the shop.... They're free that way.... Well at least the don't run into the pen fund lol.
 
I have a question for those who say "whatever is handy or cheapest". The question is: Have you ever tried any other brand? Or, are you just happy using whatever is available? I ask because I have used most everything available for applying CA glue for finishing pens. And while many brands of paper towels work there are some that work better than others for many reasons. Cellulose content, amount of lint shed when using, chemicals used to treat the towels, and ink in the dye if the towel has disigns are just some of the ones that come to mind.

Not arguing...just interested.
Bounty still Rocks! Viva rocks just under bounty....
Do a good turn daily!
Don
 
VIVA! I like the softness better than any other I have tried. I have used several different ones but keep coming back to VIVA.
 
I get the cheap ones from BJ's club, their brand. The towels tear off in half sheets. Good stuff.
If I don't have those available, I use the Scott's Blue shop towels. That CA stuff is "hot"
 
I've used several. I tried some cheap ones, but they had too much lint or residue come off on the blank. The blue shop paper towels work, but I've been happy with bounty paper towels. They are generally cheaper than the blue ones. Not that the cost is much in the overall cost of pen making. It's just more convenient to buy 1 kind for both inside & outside.
 
Dollar General brand thick crappy ones that come in full sheets perforated so you can use 1/2 sheet. tear 3 sections off stack them and tear those in 3 sections. Never had a problem yet with them.
 
I use the blue shop towels cut into 1" strips then folded in half with a piece of wax paper underneath for the first pass. I've burnt my finger too many times.
 
I use paper from the finest trees of Colombia. Hand rolled by Colombian virgins. Ok....actually I use the cheapest paper towels I can find.
 
When I first started lurking around the IAP back in 2005 I caught the end of the TOWEL WARS. A lot of discussion went on about which towel was the best with some strong opinions for various brands. To give the results of the battles a quick summary,It appeared that most towels worked, some worked better for some people than for others. The towels with out a lot of lint and without colored patterns seem to be preferred. other than that there were a few with more than one supporter. Bounty and Viva as mentioned above along with the blue shop towels. I guess try a few of the brands available in your area and see what works best for your style of finishing. Personally I think temperature and humidity have much more effect on my finish than the paper towels used.
 
I use bounty. I tried another brand (sorry dont recall) - yes I raidied the wife's kitchen supply - but I did a few pens and noticed little white specs in the finish. I finally figured out it was the paper towel, so I went back to bounty nad problem gone. I'm sure there are many brands that work just fine, but there will also be some that don't work well.
 
I also use the Scott blue towels. I used some cheap paper towels with a glove on and it proceeded to react with the paper towel, as well as the glove. I had a nasty burn for a while. I buy them in bulk at Costco.
 
I buy mine at Home Depot in the paint section. It's a strong white wipper towel paper but soft that I split in half.
 
I've used different brands of varying stiffness/absorbancy/cost/etc.

My favorite so far is WalMart's Great Value paper towel rolls. They're a bit stiffer than the others, so they hold their shape a bit better. They don't absorb the CA as readily as the softer towels, so that's a plus.

They're also the cheapest on the shelf.
 
I go to Michaels or Hobby Lobby and buy the very thin craft foam and cut it into strips to use to for applying the CA. It does not soak up the CA and works wonderfully. Of course, the little plastic baggies work also and they are free with your pen kits.

Don
 
I use Bounty. I've tried many different different brands but Bounty seems to leave fewer white specks in the finish.

I've also had good results using packing foam to apply CA. And it us cheaper in the long run as it doesn't soak up the CA.
 
An old time member here used to sell strips of delrin sheet, the pieces were about .010 thick and were the best thing I ever found for applying CA.
These strips had several things going for them, 1 CA didn't soak into them at all and 2 you could move the still unset CA around, 3 they lasted for a LONG time. I still have a couple of pieces and to me the only draw back was it took longer for the CA to kick off. But the results was great with thin CA and Amazing with Medium CA.
Next to these strips, I prefer the blue Automotive/Industrial towels, since they don't soak the CA up. I've tried several of my machine shop suppliers and haven't been able to find any more of the Delrin in .010 or even .020 sheets, they were flexible enough to fit on contours and weren't expensive, I wish I could remember the guys name, I do believe he may have passed away, his company was in Bellflower CA. but I'll be darned if I can remember his name.
 
I use the foam packing that your electronics are packed in. I save it and just cut swatches as i need them. I put a couple of drops of M c/a and apply it with lathe not running, it stays wet but drys in short order, same swatch last through for the whole piece. I also use it for larger turnings b/c the paper towel thingy reacts to quickly to spread the c/a on larger diameters. Carl
 
bitshird said:
An old time member here used to sell strips of delrin sheet, the pieces were about .010 thick and were the best thing I ever found for applying CA.
These strips had several things going for them, 1 CA didn't soak into them at all and 2 you could move the still unset CA around, 3 they lasted for a LONG time. I still have a couple of pieces and to me the only draw back was it took longer for the CA to kick off. But the results was great with thin CA and Amazing with Medium CA.
Next to these strips, I prefer the blue Automotive/Industrial towels, since they don't soak the CA up. I've tried several of my machine shop suppliers and haven't been able to find any more of the Delrin in .010 or even .020 sheets, they were flexible enough to fit on contours and weren't expensive, I wish I could remember the guys name, I do believe he may have passed away, his company was in Bellflower CA. but I'll be darned if I can remember his name.
Click to expand...

Try this: http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=80318&highlight=delrin
 
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