CA and Cactus Juice

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Gary Beasley

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Joined
Sep 18, 2009
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1,335
Location
Marietta, Ga. USA
My son and I were turning a few slims for stylus pens and of the ones we turned the stabilized applewood and stabilized spalted sweetgum crazed the CA finish overnight. The other pens were unstabilized wood and seems just fine.
The humidity was pretty high for several weeks and I also suspect the medium CA is getting old. Any idea why this would happen only on the stabilized blanks? Would there be a reaction going on with all these conditions I need to watch? I wouldn't think the stabilized blanks would be prone to absorbing moisture from the air so it seems likely a surface bonding issue.
 
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I have used a CA finish on several stabilized pieces in the past week without a problem. Stabilized blanks should not be absorbing moistue. Did you stabilize the blanks yourself or were they purchased? Perhaps the stabilizing resin used is reacting with the CA. Try wiping with DNA before applying CA.
 
Gary Beasley said:
Maybe so, but wouldn't the CA bond with the resin in the wood same as it does when I coat an acrylic part to hide a chip out?
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I would say Yes. I use it to finished wood pens made from stabilized blanks with no problems. Also for filling worm holes and stuff. That stuff sticks to everything, even when you don't want it too. lol LIke said above, sand it down and wife it off real good with DNA or Acetone before applying CA.
 
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Gary for comparison you may want to try a commercially stabilized blank for comparrison. Not a comment on yours...just a way to compare different ways of gettin' it done.
 
The chemistry in the Juice did not cause this, of that I am 100% certain. I use CA finish on every pen I do and have done a lot of Cactus Juice stabilized blanks. There is nothing you could have done in your stabilizing of the blanks related to the Juice that would cause it. Whether "professionally" stabilized or done yourself would not make a difference since the chemistry that the "pros" use is is similar to the chemistry of Cactus Juice. Besides, there are a number of pros that use Cactus Juice! I would guess too much moisture in your wood or bad CA.

Sorry, I am at a show and on my iPad and hate typing on it. Please give me a call on Tuesday when I am back in the shop and we can better troubleshoot the issue and help get it resolved!
 
I'm just about 100% sure it's the ca going bad. We were down in the shop today and my son noticed the ca on the bushings had crazed as well. Bottle found itself in the trashcan.
 
It did it again. A stabilized cross cut piece of sycamore. I tossed the bottle of CA I was using and got a fresh bottle from the fridge. This time I noticed the cracking was only over the areas of end grain. Something peculiar is going on here and I need to find out how to prevent it.
 
Let's get down to the use of CA Gary...what are you using it for? With stabilized blanks, the use of CA is minimal...but let's get the problem solved. What and where are you using it for?
 
I'm doing my usual two coats thin and four coats medium and polishing to a gloss. I've never had this happen before now even with stabilized blanks so I couldn't even guess what's going on.
 
What chemicals are you using on the lathe before/during/after turning? This would include cleaners, glue, accelerators, alcohols, solvents, polishing agents, etc.. Brand if you can.
 
I had a talk with Curtis and we think it may be moisture in the wood from high ambient humidity making the ca blow out. I'm going to do some baking and see if that makes thinks work better.
 
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