Thread: Any ideas what caused this?

SDM

I would hazard a guess that the CA finish has delaminated. This has happened to me on a couple of pens I finished with CA. I used medium CA and someone suggested it is better to use thin CA.

I have moved from using CA to using lacquer by dipping it several times and give a much better finish than CA.

Have a look here.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f69/completly-93495

I can't see anything on the pix.

Another cause of milkiness in CA finishes is too much accelerator, or not thoroughly wiping it off between coats. It's fine for a while, then starts going cloudy.

One of the reasons I don't use it.

if the pen gets very hot (left on the dash of the car) then the CA tends to go milky, If it is just after it's applied then I would also guess too much accelarator, you really do need to allow it to throughly dry (and remove all traces) before applying the next coat, (one problem is CA is FAST and PPl are in a hurry so they try to make the process as fast as it can be, instead of allowing that extra few seconds of preperation and effort between coats,
You wouldn't apply a second coat of Poly within 20MIns....you would surely wait untill it was ready ... (NOT SAYING THIS IS THE CAUSE Just saying I've been there and done that myself, now I must really hold back before applying the next and subsiquent coats, )

It is a rteal shame about the frosting, as the pen really does look good..

Mark

Nick, PM sent, Amos

Originally Posted by Barry_White

SDM

I would hazard a guess that the CA finish has delaminated. This has happened to me on a couple of pens I finished with CA. I used medium CA and someone suggested it is better to use thin CA.

I have moved from using CA to using lacquer by dipping it several times and give a much better finish than CA.

Have a look here.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f69/completly-93495

Barry,

Does the dipping method work with polyurethane (specifically minwax wipe on) ?

Nick,

I have had this happen and have put it down to a moisture within the blank.

I have wondered if it is where I have wet sanded through the finish and then reaplied CA.

I have since started to wipe down with BLO between any sanding of the Ca, which seems to have solved the problem.

Hadn't thought about the accelerator being the problem though and might have to investigate further.

Mike

Looks like delaminating to me, but hard to tell from a photo. If you are pulling the pen apart, try holding the pen part vertically ABOVE the tip of a thin CA bottle, to ensure the CA doesn't run down the pen. If it is delaminating, capillary action should draw some of the CA into the gap.

Thanks for all the ideas
I've cropped the photos so that the problem area is highlighted
(It also shows that I hadn't got this one flush with the fittings - which is why I was going to dismantle and refinish) (no comments please re p poor workmanship)

Attachment 105570 Attachment 105571

It has definitely gone milky
This is how it looked in mid Feb. (you can see my poor workmanship is evident in Feb)

Attachment 105572

It has been stored in a pen case along with some other pens.
I don't think it is delaminating. Could be moisture but I don't think so as is half acrylic and half banksia. Dunno really.

PS what these photos show is that my photos are not as clear as they should be

Originally Posted by 44Ronin

Barry,

Does the dipping method work with polyurethane (specifically minwax wipe on) ?

Ronin

I couldn't really say. What I bought was 4 litres of Furniture Lacquer (Smallest I could get from the supplier) and a litre of thinners and mixed it 50-50 and just dipped them as per Edblysard's post.

Here is a link to the pens I made using this method.

https://www.woodworkforums.com/showth...888#post957888