CA Finish on a Pen

Re: CA Finish on a Pen

MikeinCapeMay

>I really like that color!

Nice job.

Another View

Jim Shaver - Oakville, Ontario

>Hi Tom,

Thanks very much, it is a royal blue..

Take care,

Jim

Thanks Ralph

MikeinCapeMay

>Very nice!

Sorry Mike, Opps!

Jim Shaver - Oakville, Ontario

>

Stupid question time...>>

RonZ

>..>> for better or worse I'm an engineer or was one before I started turning. I look at things analytically and detect if things are slightly off, must understand the process before I do it, etc. I also like to quote my college math teacher who said 'don't do any more wotk than you have to'. While that doesn't apply to everything, it applies certainly to production work. The caveat would be that the end result is a top notch product with the least energy expended.

While I haven't tried CA yet, I have been held back by the thought of the legthy micro sanding. What I do not understand though is why you would add friction polish and carnauba to the CA? What would it help? What does it bind to?

Hi Ron,

Jim Shaver - Oakville, Ontario

>Hi Ron,

Great story, I like reading things like that.

Well, I made aother one without the friction polish...I'll see what happens. I had no problem getting the Mylands to finish on the CA, then I wiped on a microcrystaline conservators wax from LV...it feels great!

I asked the question of other turners and I have recieved a wide variety of responses. I decided to go for it as it is a bit of an experiment. The finishing process now takes me about 20 minutes per pen for what I call my priemium pens (stabilized woods, platinum or titanium kits), less than 5 minutes for my "common" pens.

Take care,

Jim

Re: CA Finish on a Pen

Pete (Stafford, VA)

>Jim,

I've also been using the friction polish on my gentleman's pens (those statesmen pens of yours look great so I'm going to have to give them a try!). This is probably a stupid question, but how do you prevent the glue from gluing the bushings to the blank??

Pete

Re: CA Finish on a Pen

Jim Shaver - Oakville, Ontario

>Hi Pete,

Thanks for your comments. Before I put the blanks on the bushings, I apply some wax to the bushing step ring...I learnt the hard way, it works for me though.

Take care,

Jim

Re: CA Finish on a Pen

Pete (Stafford, VA)

>Thanks Jim, I'll have to give it a try. One other question - how do you go about drilling your acrylic blanks? I tried to do about 4 of them so far, but every time I try drilling them out, the blank usually shatters.....

Pete

No problem Jim, I

MikeinCapeMay

>thought it was funny............of course I did look over my shoulder as well.

Re: Another View

Barry Turner

>Prettttty!

Good Question, My Approach

Jim Shaver - Oakville, Ontario

>Hi Pete,

This is a stablized wood, so it drills almost like true wood, but with the resins it does have a similar cut to wood.

Acrylics, WOW, those drive me crazy too. I had terrible time with them yeasr ago, but Jennifer Shirley walked me through how she was doing it and now I am fine.

What I do is I cut the blank to the lengths, but 1/4" longer. I then drill slowly, backing out often, especially at the end, you need to control heat and the build up of pressure from too many chips at the cutting edge of the drill bite, super lighte cuts at the end. When you have reached the end, or not even drilled through, I go back to the band saw and final cut that 1/4" off, leaving a clean blank with a clean drilled hole for gluing in a tube.

Take care,

Jim

P.S....>>

RonZ

>Hi Jim,

First of all I forgot to say that it's a darn fine looking pen.

My theory goes like this; no matter what you sand, don't go any higher than 400grit as the wood will no longer have sizeable pores to take the sanding sealer/finish.

I assume your blank is stabalized so even without any additional finish it could be finished via micro sanding. By adding the CA, you're totally sealing the pen and if the layers of CA are thick enough, you can micro sand that to 12k. Then you'd have a protecting plastic layer that has bonded with the stabalized blank. Once you add friction polish [shellac]I don't think there is a surface for the stuff to adhere to and I don't know how shellac would do over time, i.e. flaking off. I use carnauba to protect the friction polish which wouldn't be applicable here. I learned from Bill B. that the microcrystaline wax was good for a final finger print resistant finish when putting them on display. So in your case that would be a wise final finish to the CA.

Well now thanks to you I've got some unstabalized red mallee burr I'm going to have to put a CA finish on and see how it goes.

All the best,

Ron

Re: Good Question, My Approach

Pete (Stafford, VA)

>Thanks Jim, I'll give it a try! Pete

Re: CA Finish on a Pen

Scott Greaves in Blackfoot Idaho

>Hi Jim,

I have to say that I really enjoy the shape you've been getting on your pens!

Your CA finish turned out fine! You done good! The friction polish on top of the CA probably doesn't do any good, but it probably doesn't hurt it either. I really messed up the first five or six pens I tried a CA finish on - I'm glad you didn't have to go through that!

Scott.

Thanks Scott

Jim Shaver - Oakville, Ontario

>Hi Scott,

Thanks for yoru kind words, I enjoy making them very much. As luck would have it I tried to repeat the CA process on two other pens Sunday...it was a bad experience!

I appreciate you advice, I am a fan of your work,

take care,

Jim