First CA finished Pen

[rraming]

Designer Twist Padauk

I have only used Pens Plus for finishing pens but recently ordered from Exotic and got some Gluboost supplies. My lathe only goes down to 500 rpm. I hand applied the fill (blue bottle) with 3 coats, then did 2 coats of orange bottle while lathe was on - she started smoking (LOL) guess heat is no good, got it! Sanded with wet micro set and polished with some car polish (another past time I have).
This comes out with much more gloss and this porous wood was itching to be my first victim.
Pretty excited over this one, as excited as a 60 year old can get

 

[egnald]

Cool! - Padauk is such a pretty wood. The Designer / Euro style pens are among my favorites. - Dave

 

[Hippie3180]

Looks like you nailed the CA finish.

 

[rraming]

Looks like you nailed the CA finish.

I do watch a lot of videos

 

[JohnU]

Congrats! You did great….. it's a beauty!

 

[bugradx2]

Very nice finish!

You mentioned it smoking? Were you trying to friction finish the CA or did it start to flash as you were applying it? I have a friend who is also a turner who lives near me who had a problem with his CA flashing. We spent some time one afternoon looking at how he applied his finish vs mine (both Gluboost) and discovered he was using a lot more than me. I use 3-4 drops generally per application on each pen segment, he was using closer to 10 drops and it was causing him trouble.

 

[d_bondi]

Nice Job! The pen is a beauty and the finish is great!

 

[leehljp]

Great work! Congratulations!

Most pen lathes (at least older ones) only go down to around 700 RPM, but we learn to deal with it one way or another. If you have a true VS lathe that is adjustable to different speeds with the turn of a knob, most have small potentiometers inside that are adjustable to change the high and low speed limits. There are a couple of old threads that deal with it here on IAP. I have a 19 year Rikon old lathe that I changed the motor to VS 16 years ago, and I am able to turn the lathe down to 100 rpm, way lower than I really need.

Lots of different kinds of help here on IAP. Just ask!

 

[rraming]

Very nice finish!

You mentioned it smoking? Were you trying to friction finish the CA or did it start to flash as you were applying it? I have a friend who is also a turner who lives near me who had a problem with his CA flashing. We spent some time one afternoon looking at how he applied his finish vs mine (both Gluboost) and discovered he was using a lot more than me. I use 3-4 drops generally per application on each pen segment, he was using closer to 10 drops and it was causing him trouble.

I was just applying it (not trying to friction it) Just have to do it quick, I must have been moving to slow. Blue shop towel, never stuck or anything.

This Trimline didn't turn out as well as first, hey, I am learning Bought a bag of these so perfect for my practicing

 

[bugradx2]

I was just applying it (not trying to friction it) Just have to do it quick, I must have been moving to slow. Blue shop towel, never stuck or anything.

This Trimline didn't turn out as well as first, hey, I am learning Bought a bag of these so perfect for my practicing

got it, your results look great!

 

[jschoolcraft]

Looks great! I'm in a similar position (only friction finishes) and my next pen will be a gluboost test subject

 

[jrista]

Welcome to the GluBoost club! I was also a Pens Plus only finisher, however after having two bottles basically go bad on me, I tried GB, and haven't looked back.

For your first pen, looks really darn good! Which car polish did you use? Looks like your finish is fairly thin. I'd prefer thinner final finishes myself, but I sometimes have problems with polishing through the finish... Maybe I'm just using the wrong polish, though!

 

[rraming]

Welcome to the GluBoost club! I was also a Pens Plus only finisher, however after having two bottles basically go bad on me, I tried GB, and haven't looked back.

For your first pen, looks really darn good! Which car polish did you use? Looks like your finish is fairly thin. I'd prefer thinner final finishes myself, but I sometimes have problems with polishing through the finish... Maybe I'm just using the wrong polish, though!

Some compounds are way more aggressive than others, I just tried the first one I grabbed as I didn't need to buy more for pens as I have a shelf full of these. I suppose as long as it has a "cut and polish" rather than a compound (cut only) it will work. You can get a bottle for 5 bucks at a big box store (Meguiars).
I did micro mesh sand through another pen yesterday but it is so easy to fix. At this point, it will be really hard to grab the Pens Plus off the shelf-even though I really like the product.