# smoothing CA without BLO?



## ZanderPommo (Apr 21, 2010)

well, I love my CA finishes, and I'm fairly good at them, but recently at the MPG i saw that many are much better than I, and they almost always used straight CA.
If I wanted to smooth the CA so I can go straight from CA to MM, how can I do this without the aided lubrication of CA? I don't want to have to sand down big ridges and double my finishing time, as well as risk sanding through the CA. Any way to effectivly do this?
Thanks in advance


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## Chief Hill (Apr 21, 2010)

Eh buddy long time no talk.  See the finish on the pen I sent you?  Simple and NO BLO.
1. Blue shop towel. 
2  Sand to desired finish and clean, inital sealing coat of thin ca to seal wood then spray with quick set to cure.
3 on Blue towel a few drops med ca.  I apply from left to right in 1 smooth motion slowly pushing a wet ridge of ca from one side to the other and I can watch the tiny ridge moving along as i roll it with one finger. 
4. Then 1 squirt of quick set CA accellerant on each tube I am turning to instantly set the glue.  I never use BLO. 

 After repeating the above step 4 times or so. I do quick rub with 0000 Steel wool on each tube to ensure all is even.
Then final MM to 12000 and Hut polish.


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## gmreeves (Apr 21, 2010)

What speed are you running the lathe at when you apply it this way?


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## hewunch (Apr 21, 2010)

I don't use accel. and I let mine sit over night. This allows the CA to fully harden.


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## HSTurning (Apr 21, 2010)

Best advice I can give is to make sure you use enough CA. If you use to little it will start to set to fast. I tend to use a little to much often and then have rings that need to be sanded down, but I am working on that. I only use thin as of right now, but I will be changing over to thin then medium once I get back into the shop.

I use Bounty papertowels:biggrin: with wax paper between.  The thin still goes thru both.
When I was using medium in the past I just used wax paper. Medium does not go thru either.


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## Seer (Apr 21, 2010)

I sand to a smooth finish then clean it with DNA.  I then have several 3/4 inch strips of a good paper towel (bounty, blue shop etc) and run the lathe at my slowest speed about 500rpm and proceed to run the Meduim CA across the top of the blank and use the strips to smooth it as I go sometimes I need to wipe back and forth to smooth it a little, after each pass I use a light mist of Accelerator and do the same thing over again from 6 to 12 passes each time using a clean portion ot the paper towel strip and changing it as needed.  After the last pass I let it sit for a couple of minutes and use 400 wet sandpaper to lightly sand it while the blank is turning.  I then wipe the blank dry and ;look for shiny spots which will show me where I need to sand these small valleys smooth which I do with wet 400 dand paper, but go lightly it does not take mush to remove these too much and the CA will be gone.  Once I am satisfied and there are no shiny spots I wet sand through all but the first 2 pads of micromesh which I keep in a container of water to keep them soaked.  This will polish the finish to a high gloss which I find pleasing.
Now I am not responsible for the discovery of this I learned it from Calvin at www.mysimplecafinish.com who works for Ken kallensshan in Vegas, I have just modified it to work for me.  I found the little plastic bags in his website to cause too many ripples but ymmv.
Jerry


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## ZanderPommo (Apr 23, 2010)

wow thanks all for your advice. I'll try all of these methods


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## Sylvanite (Apr 23, 2010)

Most of the time, I put on a fairly thin CA finish.  I'm not applying enough glue to form many ridges, so sanding them down isn't a problem.

When I do want a thick (deep) finish, I build up the CA fairlly high and don't worry about the ridges.  A sharp skew presented as a scraper cuts them off and leaves a nice, smooth, even surface for final sanding and polishing.

Regards,
Eric


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## EBorraga (Apr 23, 2010)

Well I've been using a method that's worked for me. But I thought I'd try Chief Hill's way just to see what it looked like. I put 6 coats of medium on, then mm to 12000, followed by plastx from Meguiars. I really love how easy this is and the finish looked great.


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## RussFairfield (Apr 23, 2010)

A heavy coat of CA glue will try to bead up if you are running the lathe too fast, and the result can be a very rough surface. Try a slower speed, and you should have less sanding to level out the surface. I apply the CA at about 300 RPM, and there is very little sanding required.

Here is a link to how I use CA glue   http://www.woodturner-russ.com/PenPages-FinishingPens-CAglue.html


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## TellicoTurning (Apr 24, 2010)

RussFairfield said:


> A heavy coat of CA glue will try to bead up if you are running the lathe too fast, and the result can be a very rough surface. Try a slower speed, and you should have less sanding to level out the surface. I apply the CA at about 300 RPM, and there is very little sanding required.



Been there and done that... I forgot to change speeds on my lathe once.. almost slung all the CA off the blank, and made a line of CA up my shirt front and my face shield... just glad I had the shield still on.... 

I can't get down to 300, slowest I get is 500, but since the above incident I've learned to lower the speed.  I apply my CA with a foam pad made from the sheets of foam that come wrapped around electronics... 
I cut them into 1 x 2 inch strips... I use medium CA.. thin gets all over my hands, so I don't use it much, and thick seems to clump up for me.  I wipe the CA back and forth quickly smooth it, then a squirt of accellorator between every 3rd or 4th coat and the last one... I wet sand the blank after the CA has set with MM through the whole set, then polish with a plastic polish... The wet sanding is mostly a precaution... generally only two or three passes lightly over the blank before the plastic polish.


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