Hey Thanks Don, you know what they say, "Necessity is the Mother of Invention", and boy, when you see the shipping rates.......I get inventive
My finishing on the technique....OK here we go......
My technique for finishing is to make as smooth a final cut as possible, with a sharp skew, the lathe running at max speed, 3500 RPM. I find that this leaves a finish on the wood that is shinny and needs little work, but depending on the wood, sometimes I'll have to slow the lathe a bit.
Start sanding at #320, lathe at about 250 rpm, heat is the enemy
I lightly sand with the lathe running for just a few seconds, then turn off the lathe and sand with the grain, left to right, on the lengthwise.
I then flood the blank with Cellulose Sanding Sealer, I make sure the blank gets really soaked, this usually will POP the grain and add great depth to the wood. The Cellulose sanding sealer dries fast. I turn the lathe on again, and I rub the blank with a clean piece of white cloth, avoid COLORED cloth at all costs!!
I then lightly sand again with #320, lathe on and off, then blow off the sanding dust, the reapply the Cellulose sanding sealer, let dry and sand at #400, I find that this part makes or breaks the finish, if you do not spend enough time getting the scratches out of the wood by sanding lengthwise, you are sunk, DAMHIKT!!
**Important note, until I get a nice base of CA glued up, while I'm sanding wood, I use the brown garnet paper, once the CA base is on, using the black or gray colored wet and dry paper is fine, but if I use it before the wood is sealed up, I find that on some lighter colored wood, little black spots of grit can get into the wood.
I then turn the lathe back on, at about 250 RPM, I have the fast drying thin CA glue, I hold the glue in my right hand and I put one of the small ziplock bags that the pen parts come in on my left index finger, I old the edge of the bag with my left thumb, so it stays on my finger.
I drop one drop or two of CA glue on the slowly rotating blank, with the left ziplock enclosed finger, I rub it under the blank, fairly quickly from left to right to spread a thin, smooth coat of CA glue, I then take my finger off the blank, before the glue starts to get tacky. I then let it cook off like that. I have a bright spot light in my desk lamp over the lathe that I will lower near the blank if it is cold in the Dungeon.
Usually in a couple of minutes, the CA will cook off, and the surface is ready for sanding. I find in the winter, when the humidity is low, it takes longer, in the rainy season, like now, it cooks off in seconds.
I usually sand one more time with the #400, then the #600 wet and dry, blow it off with the compressor, and then apply the next coat of CA glue.
I find in the first application of the CA glue, on the pen blank, with just the sanding sealer on it will take more CA glue to get full coverage, but after the first coat, the second and third coat only need a small drop of CA glue. If you put on too much, you just get a thick mess, avoid this.
After I have three coats of CA glue nice and smooth on the pen, I then go to #800, #1000, #1200, #1500 and then the synthetic steel wool stuff.
All at 250 RPM, and all with the lathe stopped between grits, sanding lengthwise, and blowing off the excess dust created by sanding. You have to use clean, unclogged paper all the time. I take a sheet of sandpaper and slice it in half lengthwise, then in to strips about 1 1/4" wide, I find I waste a lot less paper this way. I write the grit number on the back of each piece, or I can end up using the wrong piece and set myself back a bit.
I clip the 14 or so pieces of sand paper I get from each sheet cut up, in a steel clip, for papers (but not a paper clip).
Finally, I take the lathe back up to about 1500 rpm, and use the turners wax on it, rub on a good coat, then with the lathe still running, I have a 3" wide buffing wheel mounted on a mandrel in a hand drill, I use this for the final buffing.
The last thing that I do before I take the blanks off the lathe, is to clean up the tenon on the short, top blank, where the middle ring goes, as often the CA glue will make this tenon rounded, not a nice crisp 90.
From ready to mount blanks, to finished pen, ready to sell, takes about 25 minutes, or less, depending on the wood.
Some of the more open grained wood, will take 5 or 6 coats of CA, to make a nice smooth finish, on some of the harder woods, the three coats of CA are more than enough.
Well you asked, maybe too much information, but that is how I do it, and so far, my pens are looking OK, and the finish has yet to fail on one done this way.
Cheers!
Reply With Quote
Life is a gift, not a guarantee.
