Super Finishing for Turning
George VondriskaGeorge Vondriska demonstrates the best way to apply a simple finishing mixture to a bottle stopper that is durable and will give the piece a proper shine. While the bottle stopper is still on your lathe, you can dab on light layers of thin-viscosity CA wood glue and linseed oil.
Titebond Instant Wood Glue provided by Titebond. For more information, visit www.titebond.com.
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I'm wrapping up a bottle stopper here, and what'll happen is that handle is gonna go onto this base once I'm all done. What I wanna do is use this as a way to talk about a really, really cool way to finish these small turnings. It's gonna be made up of a combination of CA, cyanoacrylate glue, and linseed oil. The two of these come together with a chemistry that's really neat. It provides a really shiny, really durable finish.
The durability is what I really like about this because you think about these pens, we turn letter openers, bottle stoppers, this is stuff that gets handled all the time. So we wanna get a finish on here that's really gonna stand up. This is Bocote, and I've sanded it with micro-mesh sandpaper in order to get it really smooth, the smoother we get it here, like always, the better quality finish we're gonna get when we start to apply finish. Now, the way this works is, step one, I'm gonna get a paper towel on the bed of the lathe so that neither linseed oil nor glue can spill onto the machine. Then I've got an applicator, which is just a strip of paper towel that's folded up.
Sequence of events, first thing I'll do is what this with linseed oil and apply that to the turning. Then I'll wet this with the CA glue and apply that while everything is still damp. The CA glue I'm gonna use is one that's a thin viscosity, that's what we want so that it has the opportunity to spread and level and not just start to stick to the paper towel before we're ready for it to dry. So step one is linseed oil on my paper towel pad, and get that applied to the turning. Running at about 1000 RPM.
Now, the linseed oil already looks pretty good on there, but it wouldn't have a lot of durability. It wouldn't stay shiny. That's where the glue comes in. So next step with the thin glue, thin viscosity glue, get a couple of drops right here, same spot where that linseed oil is. And I'm gonna run that over the turning.
And what I'm doing as I move back and forth is making sure that I level everything out so that I don't leave any lines in the finish. That looks great. Really shiny, looks wonderful. I'm gonna let this dry, we'll come back, very lightly sand this, get another coat on it. With the first coat dry, I'm just gonna repeat the process.
Really light sanding, we don't wanna sand through the finish. Because this has got glue on it now, see how stiff and rigid that is. So we don't wanna use that to put new finish on because it's gonna leave lines on there. So pony up, use a fresh piece of paper towel and just repeat the process. We'll give this the opportunity to dry, take it off the mandrel, and see what it looks like on the bottle stopper.
Well, there's our completed wine bottle stopper, and this is a really good approach. I want you to try this on these small turnings. Again, CA glue, oil, linseed oil, make sure that the project itself is sanded nice and fine before you start the finishing process. And you'll have a finish on these pieces that's gonna look great and hold up really great too.
<strong>Ticket 37394</strong> Does this technique also work with tung oil?
Curious as to why the BLO is used? Does it impart durability or a better looking finish, since BLO is known for making the grain pop? (I have turned pens using only CA glue if I want a shiny durable finish).
What type of micro mesh are you using, grit, and anything else that I have forgotten to ask about micro mesh. Where did you get it? I have never used this. You have any vids on micro mesh? Great vid George. Thx.
This is one of the Best ideas i have come across in years. Finish is Great and is so fast and Easy. Thank You so Much for the Tip......Happy Turning
To how fine of a grit should be used for both the before application of Linseed oil and CA glue and the resanding after application of Linseed oil and CA glue?
How much time does it take for the linseed oil/thin CA to dry before recoating and when finally finished? I tried this. Thought it was dry. But not getting the glossy finish. Thanks
Great idea, but I concur with the first comment. Turners should always wear eye protection. You can never be sure that the finish won't be too thin and come flying off of the piece. Turners know that accidents can come at blinding speed...
I use this on some of my pens and other turnings. Beautiful finish!