On Tue, 05 Sep 2006 17:52:36 -0400, Mike Mac wrote:

Thanks for the sanding advice.. I'm noticing mine do need a bit of work..

I do have a question for you and/or the group...

One of the things frustrating me right now is working with wood that has a
more open grain.. the sawdust from sanding seems to accumulate in the
grain, and I'm wondering if theres a good way to get it out..?

Mike ... leave it IN.
I use cyanoacrylate (sp?) for the finish on my pens. Fill open grain by
building up sanding dust on the paper then adding some CA while continuing
to sand. The dust will work into the pores and the CA will harden it
there, resulting in and easy to sand-to-level surface. This makes it
easier to achieve a high gloss (sand up through at least 3600 grit
MultiMesh). One nice thing about CA is that you can immediately go to
wet/dry papers as soon as you have 2-3 coats on the wood. ANother is that
drying time between coats is only about 30 seconds and you end up with an
extremely durable, extremely glossy finish. Downside are the fumes and the
obvious 'plastic' feel ... although it does a nice job of popping the
grain.

I keep a small bottle of thin CA with a needle tip for fixing weak spots
and a large bottle of CA for applying finish layers at my lathe. ALso make
sure you have accelerator handy. It is an imperative to have a bottle of
debonder within arms reach of where you stand to work in case you should
get CA on your fingers and become 'one with the machine'.

Welcome to the craft ... have fun, be safe, learn to use the skew and
don't be afraid of the rpms. Use a scraper or a spindle gouge until you
get comfortable with the skew. After that, you'll rarely use anything
other than a skew for pen making. Good skew work can drop
pre-finish sanding time down to a minute or two (just enough to make
certain there are no ridges needing removal).

Bill