# CA Glue Finish Chip Out



## nonimac

Does anyone have any suggestions for keeping the ends of the pen blank from chipping when you are doing a CA Glue finish?


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## Joe Burns

When and how are they chipping out.  If happening when trimming the flash on the ends try using a sanding mill instead.    

Ive had it chip before when I got too aggressive when trying to use a skew bring the edges back down.  I rarely have to do this anymore and stick to wet sanding with micromesh.  

Joe


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## nonimac

usually it happens when breaking the bushings free from the blanks. I tap them against the lathe to break them free, but try to do it very gently. I put about 10-15 coats, so I am thinking maybe less coats will be the key.


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## wouldentu2?

Waxing the bushings helps alot


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## Jerryconn

I'm sure you'll get several different ways of doing this  Do you coat your bushing with paste wax before starting your CA finish? Taping them is not the preferred method. IF I get stuck bushings I will, with the lathe off take a xacto knife and score the built up CA on the bushing side of the bushing to blank joint until the bushing come loose.  The method I prefer is to not use bushings, I do my finishing between centers on the lathe.  But like I said you will get quite a few different methods.  If you want to use bushings coat them with paste wax (it only takes a dab smeared on with your finger) before starting. Just be sure to keep the wax off the blank.


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## wiset1

You can buy the Delrin Bushings (pensbyhans dot com) which should resolve this, but honestly, I use the Delrin and due to the CA coating it still coats the Delrin bushings.  With that being said I use an exacto knife to round the bushing to cut through the CA.  After that the tap and angle of the bushing should break the seal.  Once I have this blank off the bushings I square it on the sander again and pour thin CA on a paper towel and dab the fresh ends of the blank on to seal it all back up again so wet sanding doesn't put moisture into the wood.  Hope that helps


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## JimB

I prefer to do my ca finish between centers without any bushings. Just don't over tighten the tailstock agianst the blank as you don't want to flair the tubes.


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## Monty

I do all my CA finishing between centers with out bushings, just the blank between centers. I sometimes get a little too much CA over the edge and end up gluing the barrel to the live and/or dead center. I always score the hardened CA with an exacto knife to try and avoid the problem of the glue lifting off the wood. Sometimes the finish still will separate from the barrel. About 95%+ of the time, I've been successful regluing it back by using an extender tip on the regular tip of the glue bottle and placing a microdrop of thin CA on the end of the barrel. The thin CA will wick into the space and it will not be noticeable. If I get too  much and it makes the edge uneven, I use a sanding mill to even the edge up. 
Be very careful not to use too much CA or it can run down the barrel and glue the barrel to your fingers, DAMHIKT.


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## Drstrangefart

I tap my bushings off, too and I find the finish damage during assembly. Try laying out some 600 grit deat flatand sanding the ends before assembly. It takes a light touch and some practice, but I almost never have those chipouts anymore. Spending time polishing and thinning the finish out helps, too. Really thick layers of CA chip out a lot more when you gotta knock the bushings off.


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## wouldentu2?

You can remove the bushings half way thru clean up the edges and finish it with a thinner final set of coats.


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## Whaler

I use the Eliminator bushhings from johnnycnc, they work great.
http://penturnersproducts.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_15&products_id=136


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## arkie

I still finish between bushings.  Need to order from Johnny but haven't gotten one of those round tuits yet.  But after a couple coats I will take the pen off bushings and sand the ends on a piece of 400 grit on the lathe bed.  Keeps the strength of attachment down.  I don't see any chipping with the naked eye if I do it this way.

I'm finishing strictly with thin CA.  Were I using medium or thick CA, I doubt I'd get the same (good) results from this method.


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## renowb

I trim off the excess ca on the bushings while turning.


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## Robert111

I've had that happen all too often, but I've solved it as follows: 

Start with your pen turned down a fraction below the bushings before you apply CA. Then apply CA as usual--I do 15 coats of light, pausing to spray accelerator after every three.

When done with the CA, I stop and clean the bushings off before doing any sanding. I use a sharpened screw driver as a scaper on the bushings while the lathe runs at about 500. This gets the bushings back to bare metal.

The pen tubes now have a shoulder of CA on the ends. When I wet sand I'm taking that shoulder down back to flush with the bushings, but I still have a thin coat of CA because I was turned down below the bushings to start.

Now the bushings don't stick to the pen tubes, and I don't get any chipping. Hope this helps.


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## Bree

I pull away the tailstock and slide the first tube out with the bushings attached.  I put the bushing onto the mandrel so that the end of the mandrel is inside the bushing filling the bushing then I GENTLY move the tube from side to side, up and down to break the bond between the CA and the bushing.  I wax the bushings before I start but that doesn't stop CA from covering them but it does make it easy to break the bond and remove the bushing.

There is usually some flashing stick out.  Don't touch that right now!  Flip it around and do the other end the same way.  If you have two tubes, do the second tube the same way.

Now take a marking knife sharp as a razor and put the flat bottom of the blade across a good edge of the tube and CAREFULLY start cutting the flashing away ALWAYS facing in towards the center.  If you cut out away from the center you will cause tearout of the CA.

Slowly cut around and in towards the center with the flat blade keeping your cutting edge nice and square to the tube edge.  You will have a good clean edge with no tear out or 'snow' from sanding.  At least that's what happens when I do it.  No reason why you can't do it too.
:wink::wink::wink:


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## Joe Burns

I switch to Delrin bearing before I start applying the CA.  The CA doesnt stick as well to these.  I score the CA on the bearings with an exacto or hobby knife before I try to remove the bearings.

If there is some flash sticking out from the barrel I do carefully trim with an exacto knife.  Then switch back to your regular steel bearings to wet sand.  The last step I use a pen mill to clean the edges and improve the fit.  The last pen last Saturday I used the pen mill before I wet sanded.  Ended up with some bleed through because of that.   

Joe


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## The_Foo

I started turning between centers but when I did turn on a mandrel, I used to stop ever 4 or 5 coats or so and loosen everything up and give the bushings a twist to make sure everything wasn't glued together. I would tighten everthing back up and apply another 4 or 5 coats of thin CA. It slows you down a bit but it worked for me.


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## The_Foo

Whaler said:


> I use the Eliminator bushhings from johnnycnc, they work great.
> ELIMINATOR 805 REV II Finishing Bushings [ELIMINATOR_805_REV_II] - $8.79 : Penturners Products!


 
These are great! I don't use a mandel often but When I do, I finish using these 'cone' shaped bushings.


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## GaryT45

*My solution - elimiate the bushings*

Hello all.  New here, have been tuning pens for a couple of months now.

I was getting the bushings stuck, and tearing the CA finish when I tried to remove the bushings.  I tried waxing the bushings, no luck.  I would stop after every coat of CA, break the bushings free, tighten everything back up, put on the next coat, and still get tears on the last coat.

So what I came up with was 2 cone shaped jigs on a 7mm tube (with a bit of the bare tube exposed.  The other thing I decided to do was to apply finish to one blank at a time, so for a 2 blank pen, I'll turn them together, sand them together, but when I go to apply finish, I'll do one blank at a time.

For a 7 mm blank, the blank is held by the bare tubes of the jig, so there is some space between the top of the blank.  For larger sizes of tubes, they ride on the cone shaped portion, so there is still free space next to the ends of the blank.

The first pic shows the jigs.
The 2nd pic shows the jigs holding a 7mm blank before finish was applied.

I've also used these to apply finish to a 10mm blank, and they worked great.

What I would change would be to make them shorter.  For the 7mm slimline blank in the 2nd photo, I only had about 3 turns of the brass nut to tighten things down.  The brass tubes I used for the jigs were 1.75" long.  For the 10 mm blank that I did, since the blank rides on the cone shaped portion, part of the jig fits inside the blank, so I had to use a spacer bushing.

And if the blank does get stuck to the jig, it is away from the surface of the blank.


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## hewunch

wiset1 said:


> You can buy the Delrin Bushings (pensbyhans dot com) which should resolve this, but honestly, I use the Delrin and due to the CA coating it still coats the Delrin bushings.  With that being said I use an exacto knife to round the bushing to cut through the CA.  After that the tap and angle of the bushing should break the seal.  Once I have this blank off the bushings I square it on the sander again and pour thin CA on a paper towel and dab the fresh ends of the blank on to seal it all back up again so wet sanding doesn't put moisture into the wood.  Hope that helps



You can put the CAed bushings in a jar of acetone and that will clean them off. Plus, if when you break them loose, it is more likely to break free from the delrin first. When I do a CA finish, I stop the lathe after every 3 coats and break them loose. They break easier and in my experience cleaner that way. YMMV.


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