Thread: Beefwood in Lucida

Gawdelpus is the expert on turning. Hope it works out for you.

VikingCode, I have been turning 10 years, and right now I am having a terrible time with CA breaking away at the edges, AND I am using Delrin bushes, but because I am building up quite a layer of CA, it sticks to the Delrin!!!!! I use a skew to put a cut in the CA about 1 mil from the blank, so that when I pull out the Delrin bush it won't tear away the CA----BUT----- I am still tearing the CA!!!!!!!??????, I am on the 4th attempt at the same blank, having wrecked it 3 times and cut back to wood 3 times!.
I find that some type of timbers easily allow the CA to lift off, so don't dismay or give up, you will be thrilled when it comes out ok. Meanwhile pray for me! Amos

Amos ! this is why I call CA finishes a "dark art" hehe , A couple of simple tricks can help with adhesion Neil (dai sensei) showed me to put a couple of drops of thin CA on a piece of oven paper,the Ca wont stick or dry too quickly.then just dip the almost finished blank end on in the CA, do both ends and allow to dry ,no need for activator with thin this seals it and allows a good bond when doing the rest of the finish , also pays to do a clean up with a bit of metho before the first coats ,this will clean any dust off the blank and any residue from the wood,oils waxiness etc . Sometimes we can be a bit impatient as well ,CA normally goes hard quickly ,but the manufactures say it takes 24 hrs to fully cure,so by doing multiple buildups close together we can have a laminated effect ,most times we get away with it ,but for difficult ones a little more time may be needed , I have at times built up an overturned blank as much as 1/32nd inch , but my normal finish averages about 4-6 thousandths of an inch finished thickness Some times just pressing a pen part in to the tube is enough to stress the blank as well and cause cracking and lifting , as I said most times it works,but sometimes you have to just start over Cheers ~ John

Guess what John!?? tonight, after cutting back for the third time , I sealed the ends! and left it for tomorrow night, hope I can get it right this time, nothing less than perfect will do.! Amos

That's a good trick John. I must try that. I don't have too many problems with CA tearing or lifting at the ends but it has happened on a couple of occasions. I just use a craft knife to score around the ends of the blanks and then tap the delrin on the lathe (gently). This seems to break the CA and the bushes normally always fall out. Although the edges tend to be a little jagged off the ends of the blanks, they trim up nicely with the sandpaper block on the lathe. After a couple of uses I use pliers on the delrin to crack the built up CA and it just peels off.