how do you sand a pen??

[holmsy2000]

i have made a few pens for myself and they have turned out quite nice but they took me a few hours to turn and sand, and reading here people say they can turn and sand in like 15mins so i was wondering whats the deal??
i sand with each grit while the lahe is running, and then i stop it and sand along the length of the pen to get the scratches linned up with the grain, and then i turn the lathe on again for the next grit. is this how everyone else does it??
Im about to start a really low paying job where i will have lots of spare time at home so i thought i might make a few pens to see just for a little beer money but i would like to increase my speed a little, so any tips?

brett

[Sir Stinkalot]

I dont stop to sand with the grain unless I need to.

Make sure that you only use good quality paper. The cheap stuff has odd sized abrasive in it which ruins your finish.

It should only take 15-20 sec per paper grade.
Make sure you go up the grades in the appropriate steps, not 120-400-800.

[holmsy2000]

OH OK, so i dontr even need to stop the lathe, your saying i ca do it all with the lathe running. this is going to save me heaps of time, also i wot need to worry about flat spots, thanks stinky.
brett

[bdar]

Brett as Sir said, 15-20 seconds, only a light touch. If you are doing straight bush to bush turning use a cork block to maintain that straight line. I cut one one the bandsaw lenghtwise in 1/3's. I finish with a skew so I start around 240 and go to 600 wet and dry then I start with 1500 Micro Mesh through to 12000. Around 4 minutes tops with the sanding. It's the finishing of the pen that takes time, depending on how and what you finish your pen with.
Darren

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

It's also a good idea to wipe down with a damp cloth (or blow off with a compressor) between grits.

I'll stress the "light touch" bit... if it gets hot on the finger, back off. Ya don't want to overheat the veneer (whether it be timber, acrylic or whatever) or you run a high risk of loosening the glue, splitting the wood or melting acrylics...

[soundman]

I've been running 180, 240,400, 600,1200 a coat of shelawax, eee then more shelawax, repeat the eee & shelawax as you feel keen.

I do shapes in my pens that takes a bit longer but 35 to 40 min. I'm not real fast.
cheers

[ss_11000]

is it ok to wet sand wood? and is 400-800 too big of a gap?

[CameronPotter]

400 to 800 is too big.

I personally don't wet sand wood, although I am thinking of trying Danish oil sanding...

Cam

[bdar]

Cam go one steep further, use BLO (Boilled Linseed Oil) to pop the grain and then some CA on the paper towel that you applied the BLO with for a good plastic finish . How are you mate? Liked the work on the bangles BTW.
Darren

[CameronPotter]

Thanks.

I have another set of bangles that I will do soon (made in a special bangle micarta mould).

As for BLO/CA. I have tried it and I didn't actually like it all that much. Mind you, maybe that was more technique than anything. However, I get nasty reactions from CA glue and I try to avoid it where possible, so I doubt that I will be using the BLO/CA finish regularly.

Recently I have been getting really great finishes (as good as anything I have seen in person) from Shellawax Glow...

Mind you, I haven't seen any great pen maker's pen in person.

Cam

[keju]

Hi Brett
I used to have a lot of trouble with pen finishes myself, I got so frustrated with this that I started looking for answers to this problem. I finally found the answer it is called perserverence, firstly listen to the other people who have answered this thread there is a lot of usefull information to be had in the various replies, me personally I Love Neil Elis's products I use them all from Shellawax to shellawax paste my personal favourite along with shellawax glow and EEE sheene anyway enough of a plug for Neil and his product as for the sanding I sometimes go as far as 2500 grit very rarly do I go any further in grit but as a final finish I always end my sanding with 0000 steel wool and and use one of the above mentioned Ubueat finishes
hope you find the sucess you require
Ken

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

is it ok to wet sand wood? and is 400-800 too big of a gap?

I usually wet sand the first coat on my turned items and often on other things as well, but I very rarely use sanding sealers. IMHO wet sanding does the same job and looks better.

400 -> 800 is way too much. You want a 600 in there at least, personally I also use a 480.

[ss_11000]

400 -> 800 is way too much. You want a 600 in there at least, personally I also use a 480.

i think i've got some 600 or something.....its a foam pad thingy thats really fine that leaves a better finish than 400 but a duller one than 800.

after 480, what do you use, do you got 500 and soimething or go straight to 600

[CameronPotter]

I sand from:

60 (for SOME bowls that are being awkward)
80 (for SOME pens that are being awkward)
120 (usually just a very quick pass to make sure that there are no tool marks)
240
320
400
600
800
1000
1200
1500
2000 (for plastics)

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

The idea behind working the grades is to get rid of the scratches left by the previous grit... and I've found that although you can go from 400 to 800 you spend a lot longer long sanding than you would if you'd used 600 for a few seconds before the 800. If you find yourself using any grit for minutes at a time, that's a damned good hint that you're using too high a grade. Either you didn't get all the scratches out with the previous one or you need another grade in-between.

120 and coarser, only "fixing" really bad tearout (or the occasional shaping when I'm being lazy. ) I never use these on pens.

150... only on the worst pens.
180... I normally start here.
240... although when I've had a good day I sometimes start here.
320
400
480
600... I usually stop here for hard wood items.
800
1000.. and stop about here for soft wood items.

1200, 1500, 1800 are only used on acrylics, etc.

BTW, by hard & soft wood I don't mean hardwood & softwood. As you probably know by now, some hardwoods are soft and vice-versa.