CA Finishing 101 of Polymer Clay with Toni Ransfield

 

Toni Ransfield is an Award Winning Polymer Clay Artist and an acknowledged pen maker, who was accepted into the Pen Makers Guild. Her Polymer Clay art has been seen all over the world through numerous publications. 

She has been working with clay for very close to 30 years now and is a wealth of knowledge for any artist working with Polymer Clay or Woodworking. In a recent article Toni writes,

"Polymer clay itself does not really need a coating, however due to the construction of the pen blanks (pen tubes), and the harsh and often abusive environment that pens are subjected it is preferred to have a treatment coat over the pen blanks (pen tubes) to help bond everything together and add strength.  The pen blanks on the inside provides structural support and the coating on the outside provides a skin like mesh that prevents the cane slides from sheering off and causing a disaster to happen.

In the polymer clay community a number of products are used such as Varathane. However in the pen community we have a few options.  Namely CA and Casting . . ."

Read the rest of: Cyanoacrylate ‘CA’ Treatment by Toni Ransfield

 

 

More information on CA Adhesives for Finishing Polymer Clay

How to Videos

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91 Year Old RC Modeler Wins BSI Adhesives

BSI donates product to many organizations all year long, but the best part of donating is the feedback from customers. It doesn't matter what age you are BSI adhesives fit your hobbies.

BSI,
I was one of the lucky winners at our Club's Christmas Raffle and I won your box of glue.  It is very much appreciated for I am 91 years of age and I would rather build from plans or scratch or repair than fly.  I am about ready to give up flying.  It's tough getting old. This winter I finished a Piper Club  62"  for a member and before that a PT-19  like I trained in during WW2.

Thanks again for the Glue

Art G.

Congratulations Art! Keep 'em flying!

Art's workshop.

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Fiberglass Cloth to PVC Planking?

Q:  Will any of your epoxies work on installing fiberglass cloth to PVC planking on a model boat?  – R. Sercu , Hilton, NY

A:  Epoxy does not form the strongest bond to PVC. We would recommend laying the dry cloth down on the PVC and then saturating the cloth with Insta-Cure, or Super-Gold thin CA. You should apply just enough CA to create a bond between the cloth and the plastic. Then you can fill the texture of the weave with our Finish-Cure epoxy and sand it down smooth. Carefully applying a heat gun to

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Earthquake Broke My Favorite China Cup: Use CA Adhesive

Q: What is the best way to fix broken cups, plates and porcelain/ceramic knickknacks? – K. O’Clair, San Luis Obispo, CA

A: Being located in earthquake country, BSI’s Glue Pros have become experts at this. CA is always the best choice for these types of fixes. If a precious object is broken into two or three pieces, any of our thicker CAs (except IC-2000) can be sparingly applied to one part and then the pieces can be aligned and held tightly together for 15 seconds.

If there are more than three pieces, the object needs to be reassembled without using any adhesive, using small pieces of masking tape to hold everything in place. Once every part is perfectly aligned, any of BSI’s thin CAs can be applied along all the joints. After about 30 seconds, all the joints can be sprayed with Insta-Set and the tape can be removed. A paper towel soaked in Un-Cure will then remove any excess CA from the outside.

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One Drop of Cyanoacrylate (CAs) holds 650 lbs.

Q: "I was watching the show MythBusters on TV the other night and they demonstrated how all the furniture in a room could be super glued to the ceiling. It looked like they were using BSI's products for this. Is that true?"
– R. Smith, Cape Coral, FL

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Not Just for Models

A lot of engineers that work for aerospace firms are also modelers. This has resulted in major corporations being introduced to the performance and price advantages of BSI’s adhesive line. Cessna has used BSI CA and accelerator on every 350 and 400 Corvalis that has been produced.

These aircraft are the certified versions of the original Lancair high performance homebuilts that have from the very beginning included BSI adhesives as part of the kits.

Epic Aircraft has followed Lancair’s lead by also using BSI.

BSI’s cyanoacrylates are also used by several aerospace firms specializing in providing custom interiors for aircraft ranging from small business jets on up to the Boeing 737 and 767. One of the largest suppliers of armor for the US military uses more Insta-Cure and Insta-Set than anyone on the planet.

The drones used by the Defense Dept. that have become so crucial in the War on Terror have their roots in model aircraft. So naturally, many of these UAVs also rely on BSI, especially when repairs are needed for the aircraft in such far away places as Iraq and Afghanistan. Aerovironment has produced more UAVs than any other company. In the field, their Raven, Wasp and Puma use BSI’s Super-Gold+ and Insta-Set.

Lockheed-Martin has found BSI’s IC-2000 to be unmatched for use on their Desert Hawk UAS. 

Insitu, a subsidiary of Boeing, uses BSI products in the development of their highly successful ScanEagle and the new Integrator.

Many other manufacturing firms, including Northrop Grumman, Orbital Science Corp, All American Racers, SAIC, BAE Systems and Siemens, depend on the performance and reliability of BSI’s adhesives, the exact same products you can purchase at your local hobby shop and other retail outlets.

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