# Cotton Candy turned to mud



## Bobalu (Sep 30, 2011)

I just ruined a pen blank for a pen I planned to donate to the Susan G Komen group at a show I'm doing tomorrow. It was a pink blank called Cotton Candy from WC. While wet sanding the slurry crept between the tube and acrylic, discoloring the blank. I know I should have sealed the ends of this light colored blank with a little CA before turning, but failed to do so. I can't get to WC today to buy another blank, so I'm wondering if anyone knows of a way to salvage it. So far I've tried to flush it with clean water under the tap, but with no success. How about heat?


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## seamus7227 (Sep 30, 2011)

sorry, never had this issue, did you use epoxy to glue the blank to the tube?


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## Phunky_2003 (Sep 30, 2011)

You can place the blank in hot water.  Boil water, turn off, submerge blank in water and it will break the seal of CA or epoxy and you should be able to get the tube out.  Clean tube and blank as needed and reassemble.


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## RogerH (Sep 30, 2011)

Wow James, what a good idea. Thx.  I've had that problem several times with a pink blank and just lived with it, or replaced it because I couldn't get acetone or debonder to work. 

Seamus also suggested epoxy instead of CA, which also sounds like a great idea to prevent water infiltration.  I've tried sealing the ends of the tubes with ca, but unless I do it several times, water always seems to find its way in, and you only need a tiny amount and you get the problem Bob mentions.


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## Bobalu (Sep 30, 2011)

Thanks everyone. I'm going to give James' method a try. I have more than one such blank now, though the second one is not pink and I dipped the ends into some CA before turning. Something is wrong here, and I don't think it's my finishing method. I've done hundreds of blanks without this happening. The one thing that is common between the two blanks is that I used pre-painted tubes on both rather than paint them myself.The fit was a little loose, but I figured the epoxy would fill in. It might also be my epoxy, as I'm hitting the bottom of the bottles. Maybe it has gotten too old and the bond is weak.


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## seamus7227 (Sep 30, 2011)

I think CA is fine when you are using most woods, but epoxy gives you more working time and as long as you are twisting the tube in a swirling motion in and out of the blank, it should cover majority if not all of the inside of the hole. The other thing is to be sure you are reverse painting the hole, this may also prevent any residual water or "slurry" so to speak, from showing thru if it does get in there again. I will even add a little white coloring to my epoxy just to help matters that much more, just in case you didnt get the white paint evenly thru the drill hole, that way air pockets are less noticeable as well. If you have ever seen those, then you will know what im talking about. hope this helps


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## Bobalu (Sep 30, 2011)

seamus7227 said:


> I think CA is fine when you are using most woods, but epoxy gives you more working time and as long as you are twisting the tube in a swirling motion in and out of the blank, it should cover majority if not all of the inside of the hole. The other thing is to be sure you are reverse painting the hole, this may also prevent any residual water or "slurry" so to speak, from showing thru if it does get in there again. I will even add a little white coloring to my epoxy just to help matters that much more, just in case you didnt get the white paint evenly thru the drill hole, that way air pockets are less noticeable as well. If you have ever seen those, then you will know what im talking about. hope this helps


 
I've been using epoxy rather than CA for over a year, and do all the things you suggest. In addition, I always coat the inside of the blank with epoxy, too, besides coating the tube. I do reverse paint on a lot of blanks, but didn't this time. The tubes were the pre-painted white tubes from WC. I was in a rush, so figured the white tubes would be sufficient. I have the water boiling as I type, so I'll go drop the blanks in and see if I can salvage things that way. This time I'll reverse paint the tubes, and maybe add some paint to the epoxy, as well. Thanks.


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## seamus7227 (Sep 30, 2011)

Bobalu said:
			
		

> I've been using epoxy rather than CA for over a year, and do all the things you suggest. In addition, I always coat the inside of the blank with epoxy, too, besides coating the tube. I do reverse paint on a lot of blanks, but didn't this time. The tubes were the pre-painted white tubes from WC. I was in a rush, so figured the white tubes would be sufficient. I have the water boiling as I type, so I'll go drop the blanks in and see if I can salvage things that way. This time I'll reverse paint the tubes, and maybe add some paint to the epoxy, as well. Thanks.


 
I'm thinking that might have been the number one problem then:frown:


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## Bobalu (Sep 30, 2011)

Well, I tried James' suggestion and have the pink blank de-tubed. I tried it his way first (boil water, turn off, let blank soak) but could not get it to even budge. I had to boil the blanks for about 15 minutes before one even began to loosen enough to remove the tube. It's not yet fully salvaged. A lot of the epoxy is stuck to the inside of the blank. I've been soaking it in DNA and the epoxy is coming off slow with the help of a wire tube brush. Once that is cleaned I can reverse paint and glue a new tube back in. All this to save a trip to WC, but that's a one hundred forty mile round trip for me. Thanks.


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## Wood Butcher (Sep 30, 2011)

Bob, order the Cotton Candy blanks from www.WoodTurningz.com  and save the trip and get 'em cheaper too $3.50 ea or $3 if you order 10.  It is Inlace Acrylester isn't it?  I make these for cancer survivors and habve made lots more than I wnt to make, horrible disease.  My wife's a survivor so I do it as an honor to her.  Also, I have never used liquids when sanding with MM, don't want water that close to the cast iron ways of the lathe.  $0.02
WB


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## Bobalu (Sep 30, 2011)

Wood Butcher said:


> Bob, order the Cotton Candy blanks from www.WoodTurningz.com and save the trip and get 'em cheaper too $3.50 ea or $3 if you order 10. It is Inlace Acrylester isn't it? I make these for cancer survivors and habve made lots more than I wnt to make, horrible disease. My wife's a survivor so I do it as an honor to her. Also, I have never used liquids when sanding with MM, don't want water that close to the cast iron ways of the lathe. $0.02
> WB


 
Thanks for the tip WB. I just used up the last of the pink blanks I had on hand, so I'll need to get more soon. I'll have to look in to getting some from WoodTurningz. 

My wife is a breast cancer survivor (6 years), a nurse, and also works in an OB-GYN office (many contacts with cancer patients and those that support the cause) so I have to make sure she always has a few to hand out, and drop off at the SGK booth when we do shows. 

Actually, using water around my lathe hasn't caused an issue. I keep a towel at the lathe and cover the ways when I wet sand. My shop is in the garage, so even if I didn't wet sand, the humidity alone requires monthly maintenance to the ways. A few drops of Turbine oil and a green 3M pad keeps things nice and shiny. Now, I can't say the wood bench my lathe sits on doesn't take a beating, but that's another story.

BTW -- I was able to recover the pink blank. The DNA wouldn't loosen all the epoxy inside, so I had to sand it away with the old sandpaper rapped around a dowel method. The second coat of Pink Bubblegum acrylic is now drying, and hopefully I'll have time to slap a Sierra kit onto it in the morning before heading out for the show.


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