What to use
- Thread starter craig
- Start date
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jttheclockman
Member
Deft spray lacquer. Example beautiful shine and no work. No need to sand between coats or after. Easy finish and holds up well. It gets little play on this site because of the CA addiction and now Gluboost addiction.
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Thanks I wasn't sure about spray on thinking acrylic but deft makes more sense for durability. Not like it's going to be used all day everyday.
montmill
Member
I use spray on some items, but not pens to be truthful. The thing is you need good ventilation and a way to rotate the item for even coverage. The area needs to be clean too so you don't get dust on the work. I've found it to be a good finish on jar tops, pendants etc. though I usually use wipe on ploy which is an easier application. Not advocating for anything, just my experience.
jttheclockman
Member
David brings up a couple good points and I will share how I do my birdhouse ornaments and so easy to do with pens. I use a dowel to hold item as you can do same with finished turned pen blanks. I use some doublesided tape on dowel to hold item in place. Just slide tube over the edge of the tape just enough to hold it. Easy to spray all around while holding in hand. Then I take an old cardboard box and put holes in it to hold the dowels to let dry. been doing this for years. I spray outdoors in the shade and on nice days no humidity and not hot. I use a respirator mask when doing these but again very easy to do. I do them in batches. Lacquer is so forgiving and the hardness is great as well as the shine. It does dry to the touch quickly. Now the more coats used the longer to fully cure is needed. There are charts on all that stuff on the net. The more coats the deeper the look is and again no sanding between coats. If you use poly you need to sand between coats for a nice finish. Good luck.
well, I'm certainly part of the CA and GluBoost addiction for my pens but I do like to do other turnings too. Your suggestion of the Deft spray lacquer is a great one. I've been struggling with something that would be a good alternative for ornaments.
jttheclockman
Member
I too use CA for my pens but the question was an alternative and my choice is a spray lacquer. I use either Deft or Watco depending what i can find and sometimes are on sale. Now on larger products I will break out the air gun and use waterbased lacquer and that too does a nice job but would not recommend for pens. You can not get that real high shine as you do with Nitro lacquers. As I said the more coats the more depth you get in the finish. Both are easy to use and waterbased is an easy cleanup as well. But if using an airgun you need a large capacity air compressor. so there is that too.
howsitwork
Member
I found an old cardboard box to spray into then close the lid worked for dust proofing. Old shoe boxes work well and SWMBO usually has a few of thoseā¦..
Thanks for all the feedback. Went with deft spray and turned out great. For even coat I had an old mandrel in eh shape. Pulled bushings out a little slid pen on and chucked it in cordless drill. Slow speed to turn, left and right steady spray even coat.I found an old cardboard box to spray into then close the lid worked for dust proofing. Old shoe boxes work well and SWMBO usually has a few of thoseā¦..
the mandrel and drill idea is brilliant
