This happened while turning a pen yesterday...

[In2Fish]

Good Day All

I was turning the finished pictured pen yesterday. the pen is made with materials I obtained on an amazon river expedition in Peru last year. i embedded a small amount of sand cured in UV resin, and had a few blowouts of the resin. I had to redo the sand segment about 4 times, so I decided to use some thin CA to help keep things in place. after I sprayed the blank with accelerator, the CA glue expanded wildly as showing in the 2nd pictures.

What caused the CA expansion? i've not seen that before. and i've been using CA in other woodworking projects for about 4 years.

I sanded it down, and continue to finish my pen which turned out nicely. This is my 14th pen and only my 2nd pen sale. I sold it yesterday for $40 in an auction to a group that's generally thrifty with their money, so I was very pleased. if it went over $40 I was going to donate the money over $40 to Project Amazonas, a US based humanitarian group that operates in Peru. https://www.projectamazonas.org/

The outer segments are mahogany, the inner segments are bloodwood, and the center band is the sand cured it UV resin.

 

[mark james]

I'll speculate moisture.

 

[Monty]

That's what happens when the CA cures too fast with what I believe too much accelerator.

 

[egnald]

One of the reasons that CA will foam up like that is from curing too quickly. The CA actually boils while it is curing and the bubbles cure into the foam. I don't know if that's what caused your situation though. - Glad you were able to recover your pen. Very cool idea on how you embedded the sand on basically a wood bodied pen. - Dave

 

[Woodchipper]

Haven't had that happen...yet. Thanks, Monty for the info. That is a nice pen and pen stand.

 

[Kenny Durrant]

Another cause might be the type of accelerator used. When I first started using it the basic technique was to hold the can or bottle a distance from the project. I still had issues but not as often. Then I talked to the guy at Mercury Adhesives. He said there's two main ingredients used it accelerators. One will cause foaming and the other won't. So if the material is completely dry you shouldn't have the foaming problem with theirs. Since changing over I haven't had any problems. I believe Glue Boost uses the same product in their excelerator.

 

[In2Fish]

That's what happens when the CA cures too fast with what I believe too much accelerator.

Another cause might be the type of accelerator used. When I first started using it the basic technique was to hold the can or bottle a distance from the project. I still had issues but not as often. Then I talked to the guy at Mercury Adhesives. He said there's two main ingredients used it accelerators. One will cause foaming and the other won't. So if the material is completely dry you shouldn't have the foaming problem with theirs. Since changing over I haven't had any problems. I believe Glue Boost uses the same product in their excelerator.

Haven't had that happen...yet. Thanks, Monty for the info. That is a nice pen and pen stand.

One of the reasons that CA will foam up like that is from curing too quickly. The CA actually boils while it is curing and the bubbles cure into the foam. I don't know if that's what caused your situation though. - Glad you were able to recover your pen. Very cool idea on how you embedded the sand on basically a wood bodied pen. - Dave

I'll speculate moisture.

Thanks guys. I appreciate the input

 

[KLJ]

I have had it happen to me and believe it to be to much accelerator

 

[Dieseldoc]

From what I have found when your use UV resin and CA assembly before the finish then UV resin keeps the CA from curing and If you spray accelerator on to soon it will form due to having way much accelerator ,on the pen at the area.
Best to wait and let the CA gas out and cure before using accelerator.