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Vacuum chuck and friction polish mess

F

fred23410

Joined
Oct 25, 2004
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After I apply friction polish on a turning and then reverse it in a vacuum chuck the vacuum sucks the polish right out of the wood and leaves a messy ring that has to be cleaned up. The cleaning takes away the high gross that the friction polish had applied.
Letting the polish dry before reversing helps but I don't have the time for that.
Any suggestions?
 
Friction Polish problem

Are you giving the finish enough time to fully cure? I have not had this problem since I finish off the lathe but I would think if you wait for it to cure, not dry to the touch, you should be ok.
mkart
 
Fred,

The phrase "you can't get there from here" comes to mind. Vacuum (or suction) will pull any wet finish off a turning. In fact it will pull wet finish right through a turning of porous wood like oak or ash. I use vacuum to hold a piece during final finishing, but only after the wood is well sealed. If you want to use vacuum, you're going to have to let your finish dry and make sure that that surface is sealed. If it has open grain and you apply finish to the other side, the vacuum will pull the new application right through and mess up the dry surface.

Good Luck
 
shellac

Fred,

Most friction polishes that I know are shellac-based. Most friction polishes are applied directly to bare wood. I use Hut Crystal Coat on boxes quite a bit. Try applying a coat of spray shellac first, letting it spin dry a little, spin-polish the shellac with a paper towel, and then apply the friction finish. You should get a better finish this way. Shellac dries fairly quickly, so if you give it a little time before reverse turning with your vacuum chuck, the shellac should prevent the finish from bleeding through.

One note of caution: The friction finish will interact with the shellac and if you don't let it dry before reversing it, then you should EXPECT it to bleed through.

Thirty years of woodworking has convinced me of this principle:
Impatience is the biggest negative factor in applying finish to a wood product.

You said that you don't have time to wait for finish to dry. Do you have time to refinish every project because you didn't do it right the first time? 😕 You have proved that you are doing something wrong, and you have asked for help. You have a choice: Let the finish dry before reverse turning; OR continue to get bad results by rushing the process.
 
I have had a vacuum chuck leave a ring on lacquer when I didn't let it dry long enough. It was easy enough to buff out but made me chastise myself for not waiting longer.
 
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