Practicing & experimenting with finishes?

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Cavediver

Cavediver

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Joined
Dec 13, 2014
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52
Location
Tucker, Ga
I'd like to practice finishing techniques on some inexpensive blanks. I've got a bunch of ho-hum mahogany and walnut left over from some projects at work, and figure those should work pretty well.

Is there any reason I should drill and glue in tubes, or can I just turn them between centers?

Once a CA finish is applied, can I cut or sand that finish off and reuse the blank for another round of practice, or does the CA penetrate too deeply to make that practical?

Are there other inexpensive woods that would work well for this? ie: poplar, oak, or soft maple from Home Depot, etc? I've got a ton of bass wood blanks for trying out different shapes and profiles; can those be used as well?

Thanks!
 
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It is worth investing a few tubes to practice the drilling and preparation process -- along with use of bushings and making the ends finish to size.

Tubes for a few practices are cheap -- and failures can be cut down to the tube and the tube reused a few times. Practice the whole process, and it is OK if a pen results.
 
Agreed, turning between centers is fine, most finishes can simply be sanded off, unless you want the practice of turning, but from my experience, 220 grit will quickly remove most finishes pretty completely. Thin CA can wick quite a ways into extremely soft wood, follow cracks if they are there, fill open grain (common in something like oak) or pits, but if you are just practicing your CA finish over and over, there is no need to remove 100% of the previous finish. If you are switching finish types, then you are going to want to remove as much of the previous type of finish as possible.

As for woods, you can use just about anything for practice, but I would suggest getting a variety of different woods, the Home Depot varieties (pine, poplar, maple, oak) all turn differently, and take a finish differently at that, so it's good to try them all out. If you have any friends who have scraps of other stuff try out as many as you can. Deck builders may give you scraps of Ipe, which is incredibly dense and hard, and give you insight into what things like Lignum Vitae will turn like.
 
Another option if you like is to just drill your blanks with a 1/4" bit and slide the blank on your mandrel to practice finishing, sanding or turning down and refinishing....no tube needed. You can start larger than a pen blank...a 2x2 size will give you more turnings before it is gone.
You can also work on squaring the ends of blanks with scrap material.
Working on a mandrel can keep your fingers or tools away from a spur drive if that is what you are using.
 
I agree with doing the drilling and inserting tubes. The worst that would happen is that you throw away some slimline tubes. And you can always donate the pens you think are passable to Pens for the Troops. There are lots of little things you learn from going from start to finish. And even a plain mahogany or walnut pen is nicer than what most people use.

And welcome to the forum. I've done some diving in my day. Even some in north central FL.
 
Thanks folks.
I've got an alignment issue with my lathe tailstock and have produced a couple of non-concentric barrels, so I'm going to try to hold off on making more pens until I either address it or get a new lathe :biggrin: (I'm building a proper lathe stand this week; hopefully that and some shims will cure the alignment problem.)

In the meantime, I finish practice it'll be.
 
bloodhound said:
Hey Cave. If you need "ho hum" wood let me know. I have tons of cherry walnut and probably maple. And can get you as much as you would like.
Click to expand...

Thank you bloodhound, but I'm pretty well set for now. I've got enough plain wood for 40-50 practice blanks. If I'm not getting at least some decent results at the end of those, I''ll hit you up :biggrin:
 
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