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Thread: Rub - Varnish Application

  1. #11

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    It have used paper towels to wipe on varnish, works well. For wraps, I tear off a narrow corner strip, dip the end and twirl the rod until the wrap is covered, if to much overlap, then wipe off with a dry piece of paper towel. Once the wraps have enough coats to cover the threads, I then use a larger pice of paper towel to cover two flats and rub on varnish. For varnish i have been using Ace Hardware Spar straight ou of the can. Scuff lightly between coats with 0000 steal wool. Once I'm satisfied with the vernish job, rub lightly with 0000 steal wool to knock of and dust blems, rub out with MaGuires Light Duty scratch remover compound. Then a couple of coats of Butchers Bowling Alley Wax.
    Gives the rod a classic look, not high gloss glassy looking.
    Pete

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    Bennington Vt USA
    Posts
    168

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    No, I was gonna have them stabilized but just for the heck of it I thought I would try to turn them w/o. I turned them on a Sherline metal lathe and turned them like they were metal -- small cuts. I first center bored the squares with a spur bit --feeding easy and clearing the chips frequently, clipped the corners a bit on a shaper table and turned them on a mandrel made from a 5/16 -24 threaded rod shimmed w/ one turn of masking tape. I double nutted the ends and mounted it between a 3 jaw chuck and dead center. I used a HSS metal cutting bit and never cut more than 0.010 each pass, feeding slowly. The fact that it worked may be proof that it is more important to be lucky than it is to be good. I suspect that if I ahd tried to turn them with hand held tools I would have not been able to cut so gently and probably would have shattered them all to blazes. They look rather nice if I may say so, a few voids and pitts which some folks might not like but I think add a lot of character. I am hoping that multiple thin coats of urethane varnish will level out the voids, and so far it seems to be working. The whole process is slow but heck I am only doing this for my personal entertainment -- so why not?
    AgMD

  3. #13

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    Sounds like you and I have the same thoughts on machining the inserts. I use a harbor freight metalworking lathe and do almost the same thing. I centerbore the squares, then using an arbor made of 5/16" and I made some bushings that fit against the ends of the square, tighten lock nuts against the bushings then I also use a HSS cutter and maching them with no more than .020" per cut until I get to within 10 thou of the finish diameter of the insert. I finish it off with 4 grits of sandpaper turning at 1200 to 1400 rpm, the last pass being with 800 grit paper to polish the insert. I only get the small voids when turning a really open grain wood. Like you I am still a hobbyist and I guess one of the most enjoyable things about making your own is making all of the tools that it takes to get the job done. Fun stuff!!!

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