Sanding dust haze

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M

MI Hillbilly

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Aug 23, 2012
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7
Location
Kalamazoo
I recently turned a box elder burl blank purchased years ago. Sanded up to 2000G followed by white synthetic steel wool. Applied Wood Turners finish and was at first very pleased. But soon noticed a haze on the back half, as if I left a ton of sanding dust. Sanded finish off, and haze got worse. Tried a little BLO with little success. More sanding and it looks horrible now. Under magnification it looks like hundreds of tiny pockets holding dust, but none of it wipes off. Is that possible? I have turned maybe a dozen pens and have not seen this issue before. This is my first stabilized burl. The photo shows before the sanding made things worse.

Thanks,

Scott
 

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Many blanks such as this have tiny holes that will hold the sanding dust. You can layer on the CA finish before sanding so you can sand through to a smooth surface. I also use canned air to blow out the small holes before the next layer of CA. I'll also wipe own the sanded surface with acetone before applying another coat of CA.

Lots of ways to treat this. Just work on getting the dust removed before another coat of CA.
 
Scott: As I am looking at your photo, I notice the piece of Box Elder burl sitting in the background. Notice the white spots on that piece. Usualy what this comes from is a decaying of certain parts of the tree, or the remnents of beatle infestation. Stabilizing the burl only hardens this area. I have turned many Box Elder, and find this effect quite pleasing, as it shows the many colors in the wood. Your never going to sand this out. If you don't want the light spots, cut more blanks, and use pieces that do not have the spots in them. Jim S
 
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No sanding equals no dust.

I never sand the unfinished wooden blank - just a light finishing pass or two with my rounded skew laying flat on it's side (that's functionally a "negative rake scraper" for you tool junkies) gives me a CA ready surface. It's not until after several CA coats (3 thin, 3 med) that the blank sees any abrasive, and that's micromesh.
 
I agree with others here that a short blast of compressed air works well to remove dust before sealing. Additionally, on many woods, I'll use a 2 or 3 second blast of aerosol CA accelerator followed by a quick wipe with a clean piece of T shirt . This eliminates most of it, but as plantman says, this is product of the spalted wood.
 
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