having CA trouble

I have used CA finish successfully on hundreds of items, but today I'm having some blushing troubles. I was finishing some cherry scales that I cut down 4 years ago. The wood has been kiln dried since. I dried it at 1/2" thick and planed it down to 1/4" after that. So it has been sitting for over 3 years at 1/4" and therefore should be extremely dry. About a month ago I shaped these scales and have had them sitting ever since. Today I used a 6 month old CA on the scales and no matter how thin a coat they are blushing.
I feel that the wood is dry. The CA isn't that old. I am applying thin coats. The coats have had sufficient dry time. As of yet the only thing I have no control over is the ambient moisture, but it is still warm enough here and this is a desert.
Any thoughts?

-G

Acetone

Honestly I wipe down every set of scales with Acetone before the first coat of CA...
Doing this regardless of wood type, has eliminated most every problem I ever had with using CA except that smell and burning sensation to the eyes :(

And throat.

Do you think that will hurt if I don't sand all the way back to the wood? I have some still on it from the first coat which didn't blush on one scale.

-G

I think so, I would start at the beginning again if it were me...

Hope that is it, would suck to do all that work, and find it was bad glue :)

I hope its not bad glue. This would be the third set of scrapped scales this week. I'm trying to get a few scaled before the meet.
How long before the acetone dissipates I know its one of the fastest solvents, but I don't want to rush things.

-G

Minutes...

Thanks Glen it worked. I'll see you in a week.

NICE !!!

Doing the same thing here on some Amboyna's....

Fun! I'm more of a domestics guy. I like the story of the tree. Most of my material is from my own saw. But I also like a pitted razor where I know its not really your style. Right now I guess I have to; I had to take down my shop. I can't afford the rent costs on that building anymore :( My buffer along with many other tools are being stored away for now. I only am able to do scales right now. I even have a whole batch of half done razors at the moment. Such is life. I guess when I move to Spokane I'll have to get a new shop. I don't know if I'll make it 2 years for a shop. I've been working in my livingroom all day; when Nanna got home she didn't get upset heck she just helped me polish my new 4 oz peener.

-G

What type/thickness of CA are you guys using. I'm actually trying to finish up a set of Black walnut with pine spacer but it seems like no matter how thin I get the coat of CA after it dries it seems thicker. I'm using the THICK, slow-set epoxy that I got from a local hobby supply here in PDX.

Michael

I use two different ones on CA finishes myself

I use the Thin CA on the first two coats and I sand with 320 between them... Once that is dry on the second coat, I sand lightly and start applying Medium CA.. I put on 3 coats no sanding in between, let that dry, do a pretty good sanding with 320... I then do 3 more coats let dry, by now it is pretty uniform so I do just a very light sanding to rough the finish and do 3 more coats...
By that time I usually am good to go for a final sanding and polishing, Sometimes I do 3 more coats...

One thing that takes getting used to on CA is that it is the sanding, that is important, not the application :) Most finishes you want perfect application to get the best final finish... With CA you are sanding in, and polishing in, the final finish, so the smoothness of the application is secondary...

O.K. that makes more sense. I had done the first coat that seemed super thick, then sanded it down but was worried that even when I went as light as possible applying the second coat and it still looked super thick how was I going to get multiple coats on and not have it end up being too thick and end up with a bunch of gaps at the wedge end, etc. I've actually just applied the remainder of the second coat on the "face" side of the scales so I'll check and see how it goes with sanding after it's had the 24hrs to cure. I can check on some of the other CA's the next time I get up to the hobby shop and see how I like their applications. Thanx again G-man.

Michael

What is CA?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jeffegg2

What is CA?

---

CyanoAcrylate as in (usually industrial grade) superglue.

Now, Michael, are you using CA or epoxy? The two are very different. Using epoxy finish is a different animal from CA.
I actually hate seeing most peoples flat work when it is finished with epoxy. The slow cure time allows the epoxy to run causing uneven finishes. Also despite what some people say you can get a finished product from straight application of epoxy. One more thing is despite what many people say if you look closely you can see a difference between straight epoxy "one coat" finish versus multiple coat or sanded down and polished.
I may have to start a thread on epoxy finishes. I don't know if anyone wants to know, but there are ways to get a good "one coat" epoxy finish with even results that only need a buff with a little Mother's or Maas.

-G

D. It's looking like I actually have the epoxy. When I made my purchase at the hobby shop he had all the CA's lined up thin to thick with these larger packages of the epoxy mixed in (small, med, Lg bottles of CA then large bottles of the epoxy). I probably should have paid more attention but figured that since he had like items all grouped together and I had seen other epoxy's on the other side of the isle that I was getting the CA that I was looking for. Thanks for asking, I probably would have been banging my head against the wall trying to figure this out for weeks:banghead:

Michael

D: I'd like to see you start a thread on epoxy finishes. I've experimented one time, using the instructions found elsewhere on this forum, and I was pretty satisfied, but there were some issues where I'd like to see improvement. Of course maybe it was just my technique. Actually, it seems pretty simple, but I'm sure there are different techniques/products. Thanks in advance.

Search Cannonfodder / Dave's old threads there is some good info on how to do epoxy on scales in there,

Also G if you are going to do a step by step guide, check the Wiki and see if you can improve what we have in there....

Thanks in Advance "TiA"

The thread from cannonfodder is in the wiki in the section about making scales. Pretty good info but it could possibly be updated.