I enjoyed giving my demo yesterday and it was good to get such positive feedback from so many of you.
Whilst most of it went according to plan the CA finishing turned out to be a bit of a disaster. I like to use such occasions to analyse what went wrong so that I won't make the same mistakes again and I also like to see if I can manage some sort of recovery.
Several things went wrong on this occasion:
The wood I chose (purpleheart) had quite an open grain structure so I won't choose that again for demo's.
I didn't fully seal the open pores before applying the finish. Cellulose sanding sealer is effective on most woods but on this occasion it just wasn't up to the job. (I used thin CA - suggested by Bill Mooney) for the recovery.
I didn't have a tack cloth with me to clear away any dust in the pores before applying the finish. This wasn't the main problem but it didn't help.
I didn't check visually for open pores before applying the white polishing compound which immediately filled up the gaps.
Finally, my attempts at recovery were rushed because of the time constraints of the demo and the subsequent applications of CA did not have enough time to dry properly.
Here is how I recovered the pen:
The finish was not the only problem, a close look showed that the shaping of the top of the barrel was a bit dodgy and the cap was slightly oversize. As it turns out this was to my advantage as I had scope to turn away the faulty finish without ending up with undersized components:
IMG_0291 by walter.hall, on Flickr
First thing was to dismantle the pen in the usual manner with a hammer and transfer punches:
IMG_0293 by walter.hall, on Flickr
Everything dismantled and ready for a second attempt:
IMG_0296 by walter.hall, on Flickr
The finish was removed and some subtle reshaping done with a skew chisel:
IMG_0298 by walter.hall, on Flickr
Sanded through the grits again and wiped with a tack cloth between grits:
IMG_0300 by walter.hall, on Flickr
After a wipe with meths (another of Bill Mooney's suggestions) and with the lathe running at about 350rpm, the blank was flooded with thin CA to seal the pores:
IMG_0304 by walter.hall, on Flickr
Back to my preferred method for applying the medium CA finish:
IMG_0306 by walter.hall, on Flickr
Sanded with micromesh to even out the irregularities:
IMG_0308 by walter.hall, on Flickr
A quick wipe with the tack cloth again and then polished with burnishing cream this time. Not quite so obvious if it got into any remaining pores:
IMG_0310 by walter.hall, on Flickr
And there we have it, the way it should have looked the first time.
IMG_0314 by walter.hall, on Flickr
I have learned a lot from my own mistakes here and I hope this little WIP will help anyone else who ends up with similar problems with a CA finish.
Whilst most of it went according to plan the CA finishing turned out to be a bit of a disaster. I like to use such occasions to analyse what went wrong so that I won't make the same mistakes again and I also like to see if I can manage some sort of recovery.
Several things went wrong on this occasion:
The wood I chose (purpleheart) had quite an open grain structure so I won't choose that again for demo's.
I didn't fully seal the open pores before applying the finish. Cellulose sanding sealer is effective on most woods but on this occasion it just wasn't up to the job. (I used thin CA - suggested by Bill Mooney) for the recovery.
I didn't have a tack cloth with me to clear away any dust in the pores before applying the finish. This wasn't the main problem but it didn't help.
I didn't check visually for open pores before applying the white polishing compound which immediately filled up the gaps.
Finally, my attempts at recovery were rushed because of the time constraints of the demo and the subsequent applications of CA did not have enough time to dry properly.
Here is how I recovered the pen:
The finish was not the only problem, a close look showed that the shaping of the top of the barrel was a bit dodgy and the cap was slightly oversize. As it turns out this was to my advantage as I had scope to turn away the faulty finish without ending up with undersized components:
IMG_0291 by walter.hall, on Flickr
First thing was to dismantle the pen in the usual manner with a hammer and transfer punches:
IMG_0293 by walter.hall, on Flickr
Everything dismantled and ready for a second attempt:
IMG_0296 by walter.hall, on Flickr
The finish was removed and some subtle reshaping done with a skew chisel:
IMG_0298 by walter.hall, on Flickr
Sanded through the grits again and wiped with a tack cloth between grits:
IMG_0300 by walter.hall, on Flickr
After a wipe with meths (another of Bill Mooney's suggestions) and with the lathe running at about 350rpm, the blank was flooded with thin CA to seal the pores:
IMG_0304 by walter.hall, on Flickr
Back to my preferred method for applying the medium CA finish:
IMG_0306 by walter.hall, on Flickr
Sanded with micromesh to even out the irregularities:
IMG_0308 by walter.hall, on Flickr
A quick wipe with the tack cloth again and then polished with burnishing cream this time. Not quite so obvious if it got into any remaining pores:
IMG_0310 by walter.hall, on Flickr
And there we have it, the way it should have looked the first time.
IMG_0314 by walter.hall, on Flickr
I have learned a lot from my own mistakes here and I hope this little WIP will help anyone else who ends up with similar problems with a CA finish.