CA Glue and finishing

[fingerless]

I'm currently turning a piece of ash that has some cracks up to 1mm wide (although most are significantly narrower). I was going to fill/secure them with CA glue (superglue), but I was wondering what effect this will have on the finish. I'm presuming the glue will leach into the wood surrounding the crack, and that this might resist the planned oil finish leading to patchiness.

Can anyone advise?

Ta,

Colin

 

[TEP]

Mornin' Colin.

If the cracks are as big as you say, first fill with very fine sawdust from your turning. Then pour in a thin super glue. The glue fill will show under the finish, but if you either do a fine cut or sand back hard before finishing all you should see is the crack and not any glue stain around.

Tip, if you are working with badly cracked wood fill the crack and glue as above before you do the finishing cuts. That way you won't have any glue stain around the infill.

 

[Mark Hancock]

Colin

First apply some finish/sealer around the crack before using the glue. This helps prevent the glue staining the wood around the crack by sealing the wood first.

 

[fingerless]

Thanks TEP and Mark,

Is the standard CA that you buy in Woolworths ("other stores are available") "thin"?

Good tip on using the sealer first. I doubt I would have thought of that in time.

I've used the sawdust filler method before, but it might be difficult this time as the cracks are in an "olive" section of the piece, whilst the majority is the standard pale colour, so finding appropriately coloured dust may be difficult. I'm sure I'll be able to match it close enough, or I might go for the contrast.
Colin

 

[Mark Hancock]

Colin

You can get some coloured wax sticks from Liberon I think which you melt into larger cracks. The trick with these is to choose a colour slightly darker than the surrounding wood so that when the finish is applied it's a nearer match. Of course you could choose a contrasting colour.

 

[TEP]

Hi again Colin, for different grades of super glue I use 5 Star Adhesives . I have no connection with them but their glues are very good quality, and last in the bottle for a year or more. Longer in the fridge.