Made a slimline— even if I didn’t want to :)

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Alchemist

Alchemist

Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2020
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554
Location
Central Valley, California
Poured a couple blanks for my wife. She said, "Just make me one of those normal pens. Something easy."
It's a gift for a friend. Alumilite Amazing Clear Cast with purples and pearly white highlights.

Standard setup... used my sanding jig to get the ends right on the barrel. Trimmers seem too abrasive and kind of a hassle for me.

A little difference was I followed Mal's comment of using the Novus system. I had some bad scratches through out the blank. I had ordered the products already, so I just let the pen sit and cure completely.

Good stuff!! Got the majority of the scratches if not all out! Small learning curve too!

Overall, calipers are our friends. A steady hand is good. I'm quite pleased with how this came out.
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Nice work! I like that color.

Can you say a bit more about how you used the Novus liquids? I've been using the heavy-scratch-removal and the light-scratch-removal liquids, but I've had mixed results. I apply it to a paper towel and then apply that towel to spinning blank at low speed, after which I will then rub the blank lengthwise (with the lathe turned off).

This tends to produce decent results when only minor/light scratches exist, using the light-scratch-removal liquid, but (a) it's not awesome, especially with alumilite, and (b) this doesn't work well with the heavy-scratch-removal liquid. So, I've ended up using them in conjunction with my micromesh pads (not at the same time), which kinda bugs me because I wonder "what's the point"?

Do you have a different approach?
 
So far I've used it twice... my first experience was on this pen and one after it. I manually spin the lathe in quarter rotations while using the novus 3 (heavy scratch). Kept buffing like that till only light scratches were left. I used the white towel that came with the kit. I used the spray in between buffing. Once I saw only light scratches, I used the Novus 2.
On the second pen, I changed my approach. I only had light scratches, so I started with Novus 2. I added a circular motion after applying lengthwise on the blank. Much like buffing a car.

The results were much more to my liking! I will use an old tshirt on the next one and see how that goes.
 
PenHog said:
Nice work! I like that color.

Can you say a bit more about how you used the Novus liquids? I've been using the heavy-scratch-removal and the light-scratch-removal liquids, but I've had mixed results. I apply it to a paper towel and then apply that towel to spinning blank at low speed, after which I will then rub the blank lengthwise (with the lathe turned off).

This tends to produce decent results when only minor/light scratches exist, using the light-scratch-removal liquid, but (a) it's not awesome, especially with alumilite, and (b) this doesn't work well with the heavy-scratch-removal liquid. So, I've ended up using them in conjunction with my micromesh pads (not at the same time), which kinda bugs me because I wonder "what's the point"?

Do you have a different approach?
Click to expand...
Oh, I'll add that I used one step plastic polish on the above pen afterwards. I didn't like the results. The second pen I used the Novus 1 for the final polish and it did come out scratch free.

I had the lathe OFF the whole time, manually turning it.
 
Alchemist said:
Oh, I'll add that I used one step plastic polish on the above pen afterwards. I didn't like the results. The second pen I used the Novus 1 for the final polish and it did come out scratch free.

I had the lathe OFF the whole time, manually turning it.
Click to expand...
Thanks, David! I'll try it with the lathe off the whole time and see if circular motions/buffing lead to better results.
 
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