# E-Z tube sanding



## Bmerkle (Jan 2, 2005)

Hank sanding brass tubesby hand is now a thing of the past.  I simply put the tubes on the mandrel (3 tubes + enough bushings to fit), then turn on your lathe and sand lightly.  One sweep across the mandrel and you are done!

Hope this makes a tedious job more tolerable!!

Making pens with "PENache",

Barb


----------



## Bmerkle (Jan 2, 2005)

Sorry - HAND sanding, not Hank sanding!  lol

Barb

Making pens with Penache!


----------



## goldentouch (Jan 2, 2005)

That works for me I think I will try it next time.  I have been using a hand drill and sanding while I am watching the news.


----------



## Bmerkle (Jan 2, 2005)

Eddie,

Let me know if that makes the job go better for you.

Barb


----------



## Guest (Jan 2, 2005)

I stopped hand sanding months ago.
I did use the method you described and mentioned it to a penturner who who worked at Klingspors in Hickory N.C.
He cautioned me that it was not a good idea to do it that way.
FWIW,his reasoning was the "grain" of the scuff is 90Âº to the grain of the wood inside the tube.This would leave less "gripping power".At first I thought it may have had some validity.
Not enough validity to going back to hand sanding.
I rationalized the drill bit leaves radial"scars" inside the blank
thus refuting the penturners reason for not using a powered method.
I have found the quickest method is to use a long screw deiver or rod and use my belt/disc sander.I angle the tubes aginst the belt on the bed of the sander and let them "bounce" as the belt turns.
It's a lot less time than putting them on the mandrel.


----------



## loglugger (Jan 2, 2005)

Get a pice of 1/4" allthread with a nut on each end I do 10 at a time 120 sand paper folded over and slide it up and down then.


----------



## Old Griz (Jan 2, 2005)

I use my palm sander with 80 grit paper and put the tube on a tapered wood dowel.. just turn on the sander and rotate the tube on it.. nice spiral pattern that holds the glue real well...


----------



## Fred in NC (Jan 2, 2005)

Any of the above should work fine. I use 80 grit emery cloth.

Some tubes have a very light oil coating on them.  This keeps the glue from sticking properly to the tube.  If in doubt clean with alcohol.


----------



## goldentouch (Jan 2, 2005)

Barb I wanted to try it so when I got home I set up 3 tubs on the mandle and it worked great.


----------



## wayneis (Jan 2, 2005)

I must be missing something, my understanding has always been that all that was needed was to scuff the tubes enough to take the dullness off them which only takes me a couple seconds per tube with 220 grit sandpaper.  Why does everyone go through so much?  It sounds as though by the time you would get the tubes ready for whatever it is you choose to do with them I am already done.  

Wayne


----------



## dougle40 (Jan 2, 2005)

I'm with you Wayne , I've never had a problem doing it this way . As far as time goes , it only takes a couple of seconds to do each one as you use them . If you do too many ahead , they're only going to re-oxidize anyway and you have to do them again .


----------



## DCBluesman (Jan 2, 2005)

It really doesn't matter how you scuff the brass tubes.  It's a matter of convenience. What matters is that you get a surface that is free from dirt and oils.  

Most of our tubes are fairly highly polished, minimizing the adhesion surface.  Additionally, most are coated with a lubricant during manufacture such that they go through the machinery more easily.  They don't oxidize with the lubricant coating and that's why they look shiny and new when they come out of the bag.  We scuff the surface of our brass tubes to both add more surface holding strength and to remove the light layer of lubricant.  This allows the glue of choice to work more efficiently.

<b>More info than you probably want to know</b>

Glue only works in two ways: direct bonding and contact bonding.  In direct bonding you apply the adhesive directly between two surfaces.  In contact bonding, you apply a layer of adhesive to each surface, and then the two layers of adhesive are put in contact to stick to each other.  Contact bonding is not often used in craft work as the bond is near permanent the moment the two adhesive surfaces touch.

The glues most commonly used in woodworking fall into three categories: water based, solvent based and chemical curing.  

Most wood glues are water based and cure through evaporation.  They stick best to highly porous surfaces (such as wood) and thus are not a good choice for plastics and metals.  Poly and CA glues are solvent based and also work by evaporation.  They work best with less porous surfaces such as metals and plastics.  Epoxy is a chemical curing glue that involves a physical change when a hardener is introduced to a resin.  This is a fast bond, but can be slowed by the introduction of a third chemical to increase the amount of time the chemical reaction takes.  Epoxy works well on a wide variety of surfaces.

With all of this in mind you can more easily select the appropriate glue for your need, BUT, regardless of the glue the surface needs to be clean and free from lubricants (other than water).


----------



## Guest (Jan 2, 2005)

> _Originally posted by wayneis_
> <br />I must be missing something, my understanding has always been that all that was needed was to scuff the tubes enough to take the dullness off them which only takes me a couple seconds per tube with 220 grit sandpaper.  Why does everyone go through so much?  It sounds as though by the time you would get the tubes ready for whatever it is you choose to do with them I am already done.
> 
> Wayne


I thought the purpose of scuffing was to get the shininess off them and give a rough surface for the glue to "grab" on to.
At least that has been my understanding for the last 6 months.
I have read where others have had a problem using CA and chose to use another adhesive.
Using teh Bench sander as I described earlier is quick and makes a boring task go quickly.
Bottom line is I don't experience the failure with CA as others have written about.
I chalk it up the the way I'm doing it now.
I honestly cannot remember the last time I had a failure due to no glue on the tube.


----------



## btboone (Jan 2, 2005)

I have a 1/4" dowel sticking out of my 3 jaw chuck.  I throw the tube on and sand with rough paper toward the chuck.  There's enough friction to have it rotate and stay in place, yet be able to pull it off easily by hand without locking nuts or other time consuming operations.  One pass is all it takes.


----------



## Guest (Jan 2, 2005)

Lou-
Your explanation of contact bonding,"near permanent when they touch",brings to mind an Idea I had when doing some glue ups a while back.
I was trying to lam up a herringbone pattern and thought there has to be a better way than CA trying to hold 4 pieces at once while lining up a fifth.
(we talked about this  last week)
I contemplated using contact cement but something in the back of my mind reminde me that contact cement wasn't considered"structural" which I equate with "strenghth"
What are your thoughts of using contact cement for gluing up intricate blanks in a situation like we discussed or I just mentioned?
If the pattern was glued up with contact cement and then "stabilized with CA,would the CC hold or would the CA disslove it?
I could just go and try it but HEY,you're the chemist.


----------



## DCBluesman (Jan 2, 2005)

Contact cement comes in literally hundreds of formulations.  Many are inappropriate for use with woods and would be particularly ineffective in laminations.  One that appears to have promise is Perfect Glue 1 (http://www.perfectglue.com/NUSPFG/image/nusPFG_File4000234.pdf).  I have only used this in tightening loose joints in chairs, but it has served me well.  It might be worth a try.


----------

