Thread: Help with high gloss CA finish

Rookie,
Maybe you should give Rustins plastic coating a try it is a very high gloss finish and a very easy process.
Take a look at the pen in this thread and you will see what I mean.

http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...ad.php?t=63487

I have atutorial on how I do it if you would like a copy pm me with your email address and I will email it to you

Froggie

John,

The CA/BLO may be the problem, unless you get enough heat to set the BLO you may get a clouded look resulting in a less than favourable finish. If you go to the home page of www.thepenshop.net and look at Fangars CA finishing tutorial and follow it then that will put you on the right track. You can adjust it to suit yourself. Send me a pm and I will be happy to go through my method of CA finishing for you.

Micro Mesh is one of the best things around for finishing both Brett @ Addictive Pens and Jim @ Carrolls sell it if I remember correctly. If you are using wet and dry you need to go to 2500 to achieve similar results as Micro Mesh does it wont be quite as good but almost.

Darren

Hi,

I suspect that there as many methods to finish pens as there are pen turners.
That said, this is what I do to get a high gloss finish with CA. I use only unstabilized wood blanks or as you, down under, call it raw timber.
I begin sanding with 220, apply CA (as a sealer) and use the same sandpaper covered with dust to apply the CA as the lathe slowly turns.
I then use 240,320,400,and 600. I sand with the grain as well as horizontally. I then burnish with a piece of brown paper bag at full speed.
I wipe the barrels with alcohol. When dry ( a few seconds), I apply ONE drop of thin CA as the lathe slowly turns and I use one of the little pen parts baggy (red printing down) to rapidly spread the drop over the length of the pen.
When the CA is dry, I use EEE and have been using Shellawax. As you can tell from another post, I don't know if the Shellawax over CA does any good.
This method gives me a high gloss and when I look at the pen under a low power microscope, I don't see any (or a rare) sanding scratches.

My micromesh sets are gathering dust.

This has been working for me; I tried the BLO/CA method and it didn't seem to give me any advantage.
Frankly, I am puzzled by all of the problems people have with CA. I think that the trick is to use a minimal amount of the CA.

Good luck

Larry

Originally Posted by Larry Gottlieb

Hi,

I suspect that there as many methods to finish pens as there are pen turners.
That said, this is what I do to get a high gloss finish with CA. I use only unstabilized wood blanks or as you, down under, call it raw timber.
I begin sanding with 220, apply CA (as a sealer) and use the same sandpaper covered with dust to apply the CA as the lathe slowly turns.
I then use 240,320,400,and 600. I sand with the grain as well as horizontally. I then burnish with a piece of brown paper bag at full speed.
I wipe the barrels with alcohol. When dry ( a few seconds), I apply ONE drop of thin CA as the lathe slowly turns and I use one of the little pen parts baggy (red printing down) to rapidly spread the drop over the length of the pen.
When the CA is dry, I use EEE and have been using Shellawax. As you can tell from another post, I don't know if the Shellawax over CA does any good.
This method gives me a high gloss and when I look at the pen under a low power microscope, I don't see any (or a rare) sanding scratches.

My micromesh sets are gathering dust.

This has been working for me; I tried the BLO/CA method and it didn't seem to give me any advantage.
Frankly, I am puzzled by all of the problems people have with CA. I think that the trick is to use a minimal amount of the CA.

Good luck

Larry

I don't sand the last coat, I do as Larry and use one of the baggies to rapidly spread it the length of the pen back and forth very fast to get it even and smooth then simply come off the end and I'm done.

I do sand the pen down pretty smooth before applying, using something like 240,320,400,600, 800, 1500, then apply a couple few coats of CA sanding between coats if it needs it, then the final coat I do as above.

It seems you have to be very, very fine or else you are simply knocking the shin off, with paper it seems it loads up then scratches the surface, you might try some plastic or automotive polish though.

Rookie, if you PM me your address, I can call by this afternoon about 3ish and give you a demo if you like.

Love to mate, but I'm stuck in corporate hell at the moment

Thanks for the offer

Rookie I posted some thoughts on this some time back. Maybe if you do a search under my postings yoo will see what I had to say.
It is a finish that does take practice but is worth it for the great results you can get.
That was a generous offer DJ.