Finishing

Sanding, rusticating, sandblasting, buffing, etc. All here.
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bscofield
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Finishing

Post by bscofield »

I have a simple question:

Why am I ending up with "blotchy" shiny spots on my pipes? Too much carnuba, not enough carnuba? I do white compound, dry buff, carnuba, dry buff with 3 sperate wheels. It looks like my carnuba coating really uneven and I just can't seem to even it out. Is that what's going on??
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Tyler
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Post by Tyler »

Ben,

This is quite mysterious.

What grit did you sand to? Can you discern anything on the wood that might indicate why the splotches are where they are? Maybe bald spots, or grainy spots? Perhaps surface irregularities? :?

The only thing that you differently than I do is the dry buff between the white and the wax. I can't imagine that would be the cause though.

Perhaps someone else has seen this before? I haven't.

Tyler
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marks
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Post by marks »

I think Tyler may have something with the sanding. The last pipe I made, I sanded to 1200 grit, and what a difference. Before, I was sanding to 600, and the pipes just didn't shine prior to buffing. With the finer grits, you are polishing as much as sanding, and the wood takes on a shine of its own prior to buffing.

Also, with my last pipe, I started loading less carnuba on the wheel, and recharging more often, which seemed to help even out the wax more, instead of getting large clumps of wax just sitting on the surface. You can always add more if you need to.

Also, what type of dry wheel are you using? A nice soft flannel seems to work best for me. I got some real nice one's from Delvies Plastics. I have to stack two together, but they are soft, and don't shed as bad as some others I've had. I am very pleased with them.

Hope some of this helps, and I hope I haven't led you astray. I've only used the above methods on one pipe so far, and I was very pleased with how it came out. I will do the same on my next pipe and see if my luck holds out.
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KurtHuhn
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Post by KurtHuhn »

I'd say that getting the surface evenly sanded might be the culprit. The first few pipes I made, I only sanded to 400, and didn't (out of lack of tools) get them evenly sanded. You have to make sure that you fully sand the surface with each grit.

By "fully sand" I mean that there's no scratches from the previous grit left on the surface. I can tell by sound and feel when I'm done sanding with a given grit.

Other than that, just make sure that you sand to at least 600, and buff that pipe with brown tripoli *well*. (or white, whichever)
Kurt Huhn
AKA: Oversized Ostrogoth
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bscofield
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Post by bscofield »

What does brown tripoli do exactly? Why do you say *well*?? Is it hard to buff with? I have it but down have a wheel for it so haven't used it yet.
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KurtHuhn
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Post by KurtHuhn »

bscofield wrote:What does brown tripoli do exactly? Why do you say *well*?? Is it hard to buff with? I have it but down have a wheel for it so haven't used it yet.
Brown tripoli is used to remove all the fine scratches from the last sandpaper you used, and any left over from the previous grits. After buffing with tripoli, the pipe will shine - shine like a shining thing. By *well*, I mean, inspect the stummel carefully and ensure that you didn't miss any spots and that there aren't any areas where scratches are still present. If you see scratches, go back and buff that area again.

It's not difficult to do once you get the technique down. The technique is difficult to describe, too. You need to pay attention to the pressure you use, and the speed (RPMs) of the wheel. Pressure and speed will vary with different wheel sizes, due to surface speed (feet per second) and the type of material you're buffing. Briar can take a lot of speed and pressure, acrylic cannot.

As a rule of thumb, on my 6" wheel, I use a speed of 1725 RPM. If that's not getting the job done, I up it to the next speed (can't recall what it is right now).
Kurt Huhn
AKA: Oversized Ostrogoth
artisan@k-huhn.com
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