What is wrong with my finish????

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woody350ep

woody350ep

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Joined
Aug 18, 2008
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South Bend, IN
Alright, I guess I was just having one of those days, but I screwed up 3 pens yesterday and decided to stop. I did stop myself before assembling any of them, so it was just blanks lost really. And tubes. And glue. And CA. And BLO. And sandpaper. Doh, making me mad again haha. Anyhow, today after work I decided that I might try to salvage the last one I messed up yesterday as it was a finish issue. I sanded it down to wood, started over. It is a jatoba blank that end result is a pretty decent user. However, the finish is still pretty FUBAR in my book. Is jatoba an oily wood that doesn't like to take a finish or is something else going on? I had my finish down to a science on the last few pens I've done, and then all of a sudden, it looks splotchy. Everything looks good all through the application and the beginning of final sanding. Once I got to about 2400 MM all is good, so I keep on going to 12000. Looks great. And quite literally once I put the PlastX on it, then buffed it, it was as though the finish showed through on parts of it, or like the PlastX didn't all come off, but it did. In other words, it was glass shiny on parts, and more dull on other parts. This happened to another pen yesterday so I gave up out of frustration. Now I am genuinely confused. I hit it again with the MM 6k,8k,12k and it looks better, but still off. Pics cannot show what I mean, as the sections of good and bad finish are so close that a glare would destroy what I am going for. It is more likely that someone has just experienced this before, and I hope they have. What is going on here? TIA.
 
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Looks like you sanded through your finish. Check out the finishing section, there was a lot of good info lately on how to finishing with CA. Everybody must make his own experience and eventually will get a finishing procedure that is reliable and repeatable. I was for many years not a big fan of the CA, but now I have it down and I like it.
 
See, I thought that too, but it is the same procedure I have used on about 5 previous pens and they all came out fine. Do you think I should put a few more coats on???
 
Just guessing here, but it sounds like you've sanded through parts of different coats.

CA isn't like shellac or lacquer, where each coat bonds with the coats before it, forming one thick layer of finish. It sticks to previous coats, but each coat is a discreet layer.

If you are polishing up the outside coat and put a high gloss on it, and then sand through the top coat to the 'next to the top coat' .. did the 'next to the top coat' get polished to a high gloss finish?

You might have sanded through the top coat to an unpolished coat underneath. But like I said, just a guess.

Do you use thin CA? Medium? Thick? Gel?
 
I have been working on an order for 20 pens and decided to use some blanks I bought from a member who said they came from a old bar room floor on the gulf coast of Texas and thought the wood was teak . I have plenty of these blanks . I have turned 12 so far and have had the same results you are experiencing . I have had to sand back down to wood on almost all of them . I have switched to a new bottle of CA but still having the same results . As I normally apply 8 coats of CA/BLO and get a glass finish on other wood , I am really burning time and material with these . I have left the most recent blank on the mandrel for a few days and today ,just for a trial , I took it to the buffing wheel and buffed it , then put it back onthe lathe and polished with Renwax . Got better results but I really feel it is the wood that is the problem .

I don't expect this to be much help but at least you know you're not alone with this problem . Someone said BLO can go bad with age so I may have to go to the hardware store tomorrow .
 
Try stabilizing the blanks first and then refinish them with your application of CA.

I had the same problems with a few blanks several months ago. I can't remember what the wood was though for the life of me, but it may have been Oak ... ?

I sanded everything off, then used my concoction of styrofoam and MEK and soaked the blanks for several days under vacuum and then back to returning a little bit, refinished them with no problems. If you have the time to allow the blanks to soak for a week or so you do not need any vacuum.
 
Get yourself a light colored piece of sandpaper scratch over the spot. If all you get is white dust then you haven't sanded through. If you see some color then you have. I sand my CA with 600 grit between coats so not having a shiny finish between coats is fine.
What do you wipe the blank with between coats? Alcohol and DNA both have water in them so I don't use it. Try blowing off the dust with air and wiping with accelerator. If that doesn't work try losing the BLO. CA doesn't like any kind of moisture so that's where I'd look first.:wink:
 
I too think you have gone through the finish. Rick has the best way to check with dark woods. Generally speaking a heavy hand is usually the cause when sanding through a finish. Most people only put on a CA finish that is .002 thick and it will not take much to sand through it.

Mike
 
The problem with sanding through CA finish is that it does not cover up by adding more CA. you have to strip it all the way down to wood again. This is true for an acrylic floor finish we use at work also. the patches of CA that are left will always looked more polished than any of the spots that got sanded through. Even though you add another coat on top of it.
 
Daniel said:
The problem with sanding through CA finish is that it does not cover up by adding more CA. you have to strip it all the way down to wood again. This is true for an acrylic floor finish we use at work also. the patches of CA that are left will always looked more polished than any of the spots that got sanded through. Even though you add another coat on top of it.
Click to expand...


BINGO!!!
 
Adding another thing in here - Most often this seems to happen after having been successful with several pens. On the first few, people are very careful in learning and applying the steps. Then after a few are under the belt, the focus becomes the finished pen with less attention on individual steps in the process. Without realizing it, a tad more pressure along with two to four seconds longer in sanding, one less coat of CA . . and . . . sand through happens.

I overcame this by applying more layers or thicker layers. This way, the sanding pressure and timing are not as critical to the outcome like it is with a few thin layers.
 
Yea, getting a little too confident after a few 'ah-perfect'. Or sanding with too coarse a paper to hurry things along. 1000 grit takes longer on a little rough of a surface but you can work at it longer without going thru. That one magic word---patience.
 
yeah, seems to be the consensus over at WN also. I prolly did do that. I have come to realize that I had read a thread about putting on less CA each coat and started to do that. But, I failed to process in my head that I need to do more layers as a result to build up more thickness. I think that is my problem, and I will address this sometime this week and see how it works out for me.....Thanks
 
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