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This is how the ebonite rod comes unless you buy it "smoothed". Since I'm not going to be using it at it's
as-manufactured size, I get the rough rod and shape it as needed.
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I start off with an incredibly sharp roughing gouge. It's very important to use tools that might
qualify as "scary sharp". Dull tools and too much pressure will scorch the ebonite, burning it and
creating microbubbles on and under the surface. If your tools are very sharp, you won't have to use hardly
any effort at all to cut off a nice continuous ribbon of material. You can see the ribbon has wrapped
itself around the workpiece here - this is a common problem with turning ebonite.
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Here you can see a load of ebonite ribbon on the mandrel. I'll have to stop the lathe and remove that by hand.
If you're not getting ribbons, but are instead getting a lot of dust, chances are your tool is dull. Sharpen and
continue on. Also, it helps immensely if you use a shearing motion, as if you were using a skew. In fact, a skew
may be ideal - I just use a roughing gouge since I'm only turning the stock round and not adding beads or anything.
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When you're finished turning the stock down to the diameter you want, you should have a smooth surface like this. There are
tooling marks, but overall it's a smooth surface that doesn't have any coarseness to it. It it does, you may be able to sand
through the surface and make it smooth, but you may also have overheated the ebonite and ruined your chances of a
water-smooth finish.
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I start sanding with 220 or 240 grit sandpaper. I prefer the Norton papers. I forget the brand, but it's
yellow and has stearate lubricant. VERY IMPORTANT: use a light hand, move the paper around, and try not to
generate a lot of heat. It is VERY EASY to scorch the ebonite at this stage. Be sure that, if the paper laods
up, you move to a fresh spot to continue sanding. Once you've got a uniform surface, turn off the lathe and
run the sandpaper along the length of the barrel to help create a uniform surface for the next grit.
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In this photo I'm using a 180 grit Abralon sanding disc as my next grit. I use 220 paper then switch to Abralon
for grits 180, 360, 500, 1000, and 2000. Each grit really only takes a few seconds to complete. Remember to keep the
pad moving constantly. And, once you've finished with lathe sanding, turn the lathe off and sand along the length of the barrel.
Do this for all grits. You'll see a marked improvement after each grit.
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Here's what the barrel looks like after sanding with 180 Abralon.
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And here I'm sanding along the barrel with the lathe off.
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After 500 grit Abralon. Here I've power sanded with the lathe on, and also sanded along the length
of the barrel. You could conceivably stop here and move to buffing, but the next two grits will take
grand total of 45 seconds to complete, and is cheap insurance for getting a great shine.
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Here we are after 2000 grit Abralon. I've both power sanded and sanded along the length with the lathe off.
Already the surface has a pretty good finish, and is ready for buffing.
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Even if you don't have a buffing machine, you can still buff using the method I'm about to describe.
Buffing wheels are available everywhere, and you can get arbors that are designed to be held in a
Jacob's chuck (aka drill chuck) at most hardware stores. You can see the brand of brown tripoli I use.
I got this from Grizzly about 5 years ago, and I suspect there's enough compound here to last until my kids retire.
The wheel is an 8-inch wheel from Delvies Plastics. It used to have one row of stitching, but I removed that and now it only has the stitching right around the hole.
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I start by buffing along the circumference of the barrel. You can see that the wheel isn't deformed at
all. It's important to use a light hand here, or you run the risk of scorching the ebonite. I've got that
buffing wheel turning at 1800 RPMs, and that seems to be the best combo for the way I work. I'm rotating the
barrel as I go, and moving slowly and deliberately all over the surface. I don't want to miss any spots.
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Here I've turned the blank so that I'm buffing along the length of the barrel. This is important,
just as it was important to sand along the length. If you skip this step, you'll find that the
surface will have ridges running along the circumference of the barrel. Under normal circumstances
these won't be visible, but under strong lights (for photography) or outside in the bright sun, they'll show up.
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Here's a closeup of buffing along the length of the barrel. Keep a good hold on that thing!
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Prepping for white diamond buffing. I'm using a different 8-inch wheel, but still spinning it at 1800 RPM.
The white diamond compound I got from Delvies Plastics, I think. It's been so long ago I can't remember exactly
where it came from.
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Remember to buff along the length with every compound. Very important. And when you're finished with the
white diamond, wipe off any excess compound with a clean, soft rag. You don't want any buffing compound polluting
your carnuba wax.
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Ready to apply carnuba. As you can see, I label all my wheels so that there's no confusion over
what the wheel should be used for. I've turned the RPMs down to 1250 for this since that's what I found
works best for me. I know some folks use 1800 with great success, so it boils down to finding the
combo that works best for you.
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It's important to remember that in this step, you're not buffing the surface of the barrel. You're
actually trying to apply a micro-thin layer of wax. Less is more in this step, and I could probably
create another entire essay on just applying carnuba. Suffice to say that you should never really load up the wheel with carnuba, and
a really quick 1-second shot of pressing the carnuba block onto the wheel will give more than enough
to wax this one item. You can see here also that the wheel is not deformed at all. Use a light hand
and you'll be very pleased with the results. Using too heavy a hand will give a very irregular surface, and uneven application of wax. And
I shouldn't have to say it, but I will - apply both along the circumference and along the length of the barrel.
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Here I've switched to a very soft, unstitched, 6-inch flannel wheel. I've also turned the RPMs down to about 850 on my lathe.
In this case you can see the wheel has deformed slightly. Since the speed is so low, and this is a super soft wheel, this is okay.
In this step, all I'm doing is smoothing out the surface of that micro-thin layer of wax. I'm not touching the actual
surface of the ebonite at all. Remember that as it's very important - you're not touching the underlying material at all.
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After the final buffing you should have a super smooth and shiny surface. Remnants of a buffing wheel aside, this is what you should have. This particular piece is a brown/black swirled ebonite. This piece is ready to be installed on a Sierra/Gatsby kit.
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