Pen plus arrived in the post today. I payed about 130 euros for 3 bottles of retail value of 19 dollars ( about 17 euros). Shipping and taxes has cost me more than product value. But every cent was worth it. Its a marvelous, bizarre oily finish that has a lot of potential especially for dense non porous woods. I tried applying it over olive wood with light sanding from 800 to 3000 grit sandpapers. I messed up a bit cause it becomes sticky really fast but i cannot tell where i am wrong cause its my first experiment with pen plus. I have no idea about optimal conditions (temp and humidity) or proper application ( sanding, buffing etc.). Anyway i would like to start this thread so that i can learn more from others, who are more savvy than me. Thanks in advance for any input. Cheers
The stickiness...did it happen while you were initially applying it to the blank, or during friction polishing?
If during application, you just need to get the finish on the blank, and get it spinning FAST (I usually friction polish 3000rpm or higher) and start polishing sooner.
If it gets sticky during friction polishing, it may be because you have too much. Where you can probably build CA glue up to as many layers/thickness as you want, in my experience Pens Plus isn't really something you want to build up a lot. It will actually give you a nice, finger-print free, and in my experience durable (I'd say next best thing to CA...obviously its not as hard as CA) finish with fewer coats than CA. Also, the first coat will use the most PP, but even then, its not that much...I usually start with less than a dime sized thin dot for the first coat. For all subsequent coats, its much less than that...you do not need very much of this, a little bit goes a LONG way!! I haven't even used 1/3rd of the original bottle I purchased yet, and I've finished a few dozen or so pens with PP since I first started using it. Too much, and it does get sticky, so use it sparingly. I mean, its a tiny little dot for subsequent coats.
Oh, also, after you fully friction polish in the first coat, the subsequent coats can be applied without turning the lathe off. The only time I turn the lathe off with PP, is if I find that I've introduced streaks. If I accidentally do that, then I turn the lathe off, use a little bit more PP, and manually rub it lengthwise along the blank and try to work out the streaks. Then I friction polish it again as if it was the first coat. Then I'll apply more subsequent coats if needed. I stop coating when every part of the blank is shiny, and does not dull after 10-15 minutes or so.
Where with CA, you usually want at least 10 coats, and some people do many coats of thin, then many more coats of medium, or something along those lines, Pens Plus should get you a reasonable finish with fewer. I don't think I go more than 8, but 5-6 is usually where I'm stopping these days. The last two pens had two coats of just the pure walnut oil, then 4 coats of Pens Plus, and they came out great.
HEAT is important. You need your finger almost burning when friction polishing. The heat is really key. When I wasn't getting enough friction, I always had to do that "last light pass", and that light pass requires much more drying time (at least a day). With high heat during friction polishing, of each coat, you really "burn" it in, and that bakes in the shine and hardens the wax properly. You will need to experiment to find the right pressure and RPM to achieve that (BTW, too much pressure, and that will usually result in fibers from your towel getting stuck in the finish, so its a balancing act). The high RPM does help get the right friction with the right pressure.
The initial coats of the pure walnut oil are important, IMO. I originally started with Pens Plus just directly on the dry wood (usually after cleaning a bit with DNA). A lot of woods, even harder ones, will soak up huge amounts of PP. This was when I was putting 10+ coats on, and I had stickiness problems. Softer woods, like Maple, just soak and soak and soak up PP, doesn't seem to matter how much I put on. I had a very hard time with a Port Orford Cedar pen a couple months back. That wood never stopped soaking up the PP. I think its because the PP has some oil in it, and it just wasn't enough oil to saturate the fibers sufficiently. When I started using the pure walnut oil as my first couple of coats, the very first coat was a saturating coat...so that the fibers would get sufficiently saturated to keep them from guzzling up the oil in the PP coats. Again, it is best to friction polish the pure oil in as well, and again, that requires pretty high heat (burning your fingers hot).
I find that it is best to friction polish in a couple coats of the oil, and let that sit and dry for a while. I have a little dowel rack that I put blanks on. Since I always finish directly between two centers, no bushings, its not a problem to take them off the lathe, and put them back on, and you can do that as often as you need. So I'll let the oil coats dry, then I will usually use a new dry piece of paper towel to wipe off any excess oil first, before applying the first coat of PP. Then, I'll apply 2-3 PP coats, then let that dry pretty well before I continue. I will usually need a couple more coats before the finish is truly done. Most of my blanks bounce back and forth between my rack and the lathe a few times before they are finally good. I always bring the rack in when I'm done with each round so that the finishes are drying in a reasonably warm environment (my garage, without my 500W garage heater running, will settle around 35-38 degrees these days, and that cold does not seem to be good for any kind of friction polish, whereas 68-70 degrees seems to be perfect.)
