Official Luthiers Forum!

Anybody here have any experience using cyanoacrylate as a pore filler or finish?

If so, I'm interested in your technique of application and how it's
worked out in general.

I've used it as a spot finish for touch-ups, and once I finished the ebony fretboard on my fretless Jazz using only CA. Worked great, and lasted for decades.

One suggestion - DO IT OUTSIDE! The fumes will burn your eyes and lungs - not even brand new charcoal filters on your breather mask will work for long.
Also - NEVER stop moving or reverse direction on the work! Any stoppage will usually result in being glued to the surface. Continue off the work surface before stopping or reversing direction.
I wear heavy rubber gloves and safety glasses/ goggles when working large surfaces.
I use wet-or-dry sandpaper folded so the bonded paper surface is the applicator - CA will not penetrate it.

Apply thin coats at a time, you can always wetsand them down later. Good luck!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Sounds like a quick trip to COPD to me...

I do believe Ken Franklin used it as a finish on a uke.

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ELEVATE || Next Level Lutherie
http://elevatelutherie.com
&
http://ensorguitars.com

I finished this pen with it..

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Old growth, shmold growth!

I've used CA as a finish on a uke and two guitars. The advantages are that it's fast, buffs well, repairs easily, is tough, and the pore fill is the finish. The disadvantages are that it's hard to apply and level easily and it's quite expensive. I have used BSi Gold medium viscosity. It doesn't fume so yo can do it inside. I pore fill with it quite a bit which isn't as expensive. I usually squirt some on a section and spread it quickly with a nitrile glove to even it out. Recoat every hour until it's thick enough. Then I level sand with 220 wet with a hard ebony sanding block. Then 320, 400, 600, 1500 and buff. Not easy to not sand through somewhere or get it thicker than you want. Here's a guitar http://www.franklinguitars.com/Site/Pommele.html.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

Does it show witness lines when layers are sanded through?

I've pore filled a few with CA. Even done outside they were very unpleasant experiences. I think I should try the non-fuming variety one day... I would be interested in others' opinions on that stuff compared to normal CA as well.

This may be insane but the thin stuff is plenty thin enough to spray. I wonder if you could spray the stuff on to make the application easier. Then use acetone to clean up.

No witness lines.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

My eyes are watering just reading this thread.
A flashback to when I tried it.


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I would make a guess that spraying it would be a complete disaster for your spray gun and anything that the over spray ends up on. Not to mention your eyes, lungs and skin...

I have finished small chips by drop filling with CA and it works great for that. I also repaired a small split in the side of a neck one time with it and used paper as a brush. I just cut a few pieces of paper about 1/4" wide and put a coat on and threw the paper away. Next coat I did the same thing until I had a few coats built up. Then I wet sanded the area and buffed it out and it looked great when done. In hindsight I would have been better off just spraying it with Lacquer in my airbrush since it would have been much less toxic and easier to blend in.

Not sure I would want to try to finish an entire guitar with it though. I wonder what the cost would be when you add how many bottles it would take.

Bob

Although I have never finished a guitar with CA, it can make a nice, durable finish. I have seen first hand a few that Dana Bourgeois has done, looks as nice as nitro. I have heard that he sprayed it, but I am not sure. I have thought about trying it, but I think the learning curve would difficult.

Chuck

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I used it to finish the face plate on my first guitar's headstock, partially because one of the woods I used was a spongy burl and I needed to harden it. It worked well but it was kind of a chore laying it on evenly. The stuff sands nice though and gets really hard, as well as taking a nice polish. I wouldn't even think about trying to spray it though, I'd think first you'd be wasting a lot of expensive CA if you tried to spray it, anywhere from 20-40% with fairly efficient guns. Then I couldn't say that the glue would be any good by the time it actually reached the surface you were spraying it on, it might just start to harden as soon as it comes out of the tip. Third, you'd most surely wreck your gun. Even the smallest bit of glue left in the fluid passages could dramatically affect the function of the gun. Might not be a big deal with a harbor freight gun but I don't think it'd be worth it with any kind of decent gun. For the record too I've had the best results using Nitromethane as a solvent for cured CA, it hangs around a bit longer than acetone and I've successfully debonded my skin with it.

Interesting idea. Nice guitar Ken!!!

I have never tried it but I did see a video of the process running on a monitor in a Woodcraft store. You might check their Web site. They may have a link to it.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

I've used CA to finish about a 1000 pens and several bowls.
And one complete guitar body.
The finish can be polished as if it were an acrylic to an extreme gloss.
If applied thick it gives a very nice depth and seems to magnify the brilliance of the wood.
The finish is very hard and resists scratching, and it makes a good coating over softer wood.




This one I used CA to build up thick hard layer and then finished the surface with TruOil.


The most important thing to do before you start is to have a bottle of debonder in reach.
Surfaces with a curve are much easier than flat surface.

Apply a coat of thin CA to start, just flood it on.
This puts down a base coat that makes applying the main coats smoother.
For the majority of the finish.
Use medium gel CA and apply with a paper towel folder about 7 layers thick.
Believe it or not the best Paper towel to use is Kirkland brand from Costco. Whatever fibers they use say intact in the PT and dont fall off into the finish and the fibers have a slower reaction to the CA. Some PTs act as an excellarator to the CA.
Apply about a teaspoonful of CA to the surface and use the towel like a trowel. Work fast, maybe about 5 seconds and throw the towel away.
If you try to go one more pass you will stick the towel to the surface (bad)
Spray hardner and repeat on the next area. keep going until entire surface is covered.
Apply as many layers as you need to have enough thickness to sand it flat without sanding through...and that is hard to know when.
Wet sand level with 400g paper and then move up in grits through 2000. Then use micro mesh up to 15000g.
Then hand buff with an acrylic polish. Then finally finish off with a paste wax and it will look like shinny water.
Avoid power buffing as heat will melt the CA finish.

It's not easy but once you learn the technique you can finish a body with a high gloss finish in a days work. No drying time.

It takes about 6 ounces to finish a solid body.

Don't forget the debonder and don't panic if you finger gets glued down.

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Lance Peck

I've had no trouble buffing with Menzerna compounds. It takes on a very high gloss. The cost for the non-fuming is $75-$100. Six to eight ounces. It can be applied with your fingers wrapped in a piece of packing tape or with a plastic spreader too.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

This is the CA I use, $28/16oz
http://www.exoticblanks.com/E-Z-Bond-16 ... Label.html

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Lance Peck

Does it fume, Lance?

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

What I have done to handle the fumes is to place a fan blowing on one side of the bench blowing across it.n This will remove the fumes that are immidiately in your face. I won't even touch CA without the fan.

Yes it fumes. They sell a non fume but it is more expensive.
On the finish for pens I tried the non fume and found it was more problematic to apply so i just make the application and step away for a few moments and never have a problem. a small fan blowing the fumes away helps also.

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Lance Peck

I know that one of the top custom one man shop ukulele builders uses it for pore filling.

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Michael F Smith
Goat Rock Ukulele
http://goatrockukulele.com

I get my fingers stuck together a couple times and year. I was using CA to fill dings and dents, but now I use nitro that I set out until it gets to about the consistency of honey (I think I picked that up here), and pore fill with shellac. I get nervous around CA, and use it sparingly.
G.

I don't trust my skills well enough to attempt to pore fill with CA. I use Tru-Oil. First started using it it gun smithing school back in the sixties. I think I do it differently then most folks. I put it on uncut and use a finger to press it into the pores. Even then it takes a few coats to fill them. I've tried using commercial brands of pore filler but go back to the tried and true. I finished a rifle in 1973. About 19 coats applied like I said. Saw the rifle about 10 years later not one scratch or finish problems at all. It does take a lot to fill the pores that way. Some folks make a slurry. Again I'm new to guitar making and don't trust myself as I wouldn't even know if I had screwed it up or not.


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Nothing wrong with TruOil - I use it myself.

CA is tons faster, that's all.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince