Small scratches in my CA Finish

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scjohnson243

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Jun 24, 2014
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Tried CA for the first time last night.... I had some blanks I made that I wanted to see how they turned out, so figured it was a good chance...

I read many different methods on how to do it, and I got a DECENT result, but I have a lot of small scratches on the surface...

All I did was form the blank, sand down to 600grit, then apply a quick layer of thin CA, let it dry and do again.. I did it for about 5 layers of the CA...

On the other pens I tried I sanded, applied 2 layers and sanded, then applied and sanded 2-3x...

Would using micromesh get rid of the small scratches? Should I have just kept adding layers until the scratches were not there anymore? (I dont think they were visible at the time, so...)

Anyway...

Blue_Scratch.jpg
 
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Hey Steven,

1st, there's no need to use CA on pr or alumilite.

600 grit isn't fine enough to remove visible scratches. It will take going through all the MM pads to produce a good shine. A light touch is better. Let the lathe do the work. After you've used a pad with the lathe on, turn off the lathe and sand lengthwise, and clean the blank before you go to the next pad. And alumilite takes longer to get the same result as PR.
 
The key to having a good finish is the progression from a low grit (600) buffing pad all the way up to a high grit (12000). There are different brands out there but I would recommend Micro Mesh. Also before you buff use a skew and shave off all the ridges in the CA. As a general rule I always apply more CA than necessary and then using the skew I shave it down to the correct size to create a perfectly smooth surface before buffing.
It looks and sounds like you are apply the CA in a correct way.

And BSea is right, no need to apply CA to acrylics or alumilite, you simply buff it when it is at the correct size.

Good Luck!
 
another tip is to sand each grit at the end along the blank with the lathe turned off. this takes out the round scratches before the next grit.
and iwth ca or acrylic you need to sand to 12k with MM or buff after about 3k grit
 
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