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Dan Hintz
12-06-2012, 11:29 AM
So I decided to take a break from the small vase I was working on and do a few pens. I pulled out the medium CA to coat one two days ago, slowed down my back-and-forth too much riiiight at the end, and it snagged the paper towel out of my hand. Wrapped the towel around the pen and stuck quite nicely to it... hand to re-sand and re-coat :-/

Last night I found a cool little cutoff and decided to do another. It didn't snag the paper towel, but the glue wasn't dry at the ends (looks like I may need to replace my supply of aging CA). Turned it back on, wipe back and forth a few times, but it was too late... NOW the glue dried and I had white crap. Grrrrrr! So, out comes the sandpaper.

I decided to try something different this time around, though. I dug through my kit and found some random bottle of "ultra-gloss" polishing liquid. Well, it can't get any worse, I'm already sanding it. I grabbed some brown paper used as packing material in my latest shipment of toys from Amazon, put a few drops on, then rubbed until I felt heat on my fingertips. Wow, talk about an awesome change... not only did it lose the white dried CA look, it really did put a high gloss to the pen. The wood wasn't punky, but I wouldn't have classified it as solid, either... didn't expect such a soft wood to hold such a high sheen.

I believe the wood came from some Maple cutoffs destined for the trash heap... it's not spalted, but it had some sort of mottled appearance to it, like very light-colored wood mixed in with a more yellow-tinged base. Wish I knew for sure as it's going to a friend and I like to provide as much providence as I can. The shape is about as basic as you can get, but it feels surprisingly god in my hand... I'll try to get a pic up later this evening.

I'd be curious to know how others fixed those simple mistakes that invariably hit you right at the end of a project...

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Tony De Masi
12-06-2012, 12:38 PM
I'd be interested in knowing what's in the bottle of "ultra gloss" that you used. Could give you/us a good idea on how well that finish will hold up.

Dan Hintz
12-06-2012, 7:24 PM
Added pic...

As I said, an extremely basic design, but it feels surprisingly comfortable...

Bernie Weishapl
12-06-2012, 9:29 PM
Good looking pen Dan. Sometimes mistakes just have a way of working out.

Bob Easton
12-08-2012, 9:17 PM
I'd be interested in knowing what's in the bottle of "ultra gloss" that you used. Could give you/us a good idea on how well that finish will hold up.

PSI sells "Ultra Gloss" as part of their CA finishing products. It is a polisher for plastic, not a finish coat. Think of it as an extremely fine abrasive, so fine that it will remove the haze from CA that's been sanded to 15,000. It does leave a very glossy result.

mark ravensdale
12-10-2012, 1:17 PM
Some of my best turned items have come from mistakes I have made and had to re-think things (that's why I love woodturning :)

Dan Hintz
12-11-2012, 6:19 AM
I'm finding something similar, Mark... I'm trying different techniques just to see where it takes me. Sometimes it works out, sometimes not so much ;)

I have been doing quite a few pens between other projects lately, and I've limited myself to two tools when working on them... a roughing gouge and a parting tool. It takes some serious thought on tool angle when trying to work some of those odd curves (though the pen above was about as simple as they come).

Steve Rost
12-11-2012, 6:54 AM
One measure of a great craftsman is how well he can hide his mistakes!