# Birch burl adventures



## Brandon Sloan (Jun 26, 2020)

One of the local loggers said he had a burl for me to come look at. I couldn’t get there fast enough. I gladly paid him his asking price of $50 bucks. I haven’t decided what to do with it yet. I cut the log in half so I could move it out of the driveway.

I’ll update this thread with my adventures with this burl starting tomorrow.

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## Nature Man (Jun 27, 2020)

Congrats! What a steal! Chuck

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## Don Van Dyne (Jun 27, 2020)

Your SO lucky! Great deal. I’ll be watching.....

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## T. Ben (Jun 27, 2020)



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## Brandon Sloan (Jun 27, 2020)

I woke up this morning and the first thought on my mind was “I wonder if it’s okay to run my chainsaw this early” I resisted.

Birch trees this big are hard to come by up here. They grow very slow. The non burl side is going to give me two blanks that should finish at close to 17”

The plan is to get the non burl blanks roughed out first. While I’m doing that, I’ll make a decision on the burl. I’m not sure if I’m going to just use as much as my lathe will hold, or cut it up into smaller blanks. Leaning towards going big. I’ll post some pics.

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## Brandon Sloan (Jun 27, 2020)

Now the fun begins, I left this blank pretty large. It’s easier for me to remove material on the lathe. Just sucks when the bark comes flying off. That’s what the face shield is for.

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## Brandon Sloan (Jun 27, 2020)

I only roughed out one blank today, life got in the way. I can’t do any more wood turning until I clean up the shavings. Since this adventure isn’t about me roughing out a boring bowl or cleaning up shavings, I decided to cut into the burl and save the cleaning for the morning.

I went through the typical worry of where to start cutting and how to maximize usable burl. If you are cutting into a burl for the first time, don’t fret over these details. Just start cutting, it’s really hard to mess it up and whatever size or shape you end up with will still get turned into something awesome. Now for some pictures. Looks like she’s going to be a beauty!! I ended up with 4 nice size pieces. One 5”x4” one 5”x6” and a piece that is 8”x6” those three are 16” long. The bowl blank is 18” x 16” and 6”at its thickest. Tomorrow we start turning burl!

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## Brandon Sloan (Jun 28, 2020)

Didn’t get much done today. Roughed one of the spindles and started to give it some shape. It’s 16” right now. I’m going to loose about 5” because I’m attaching a face plate and I can’t really hollow past 12”. I have a shape in mind that will go good with the void on the headstock side, plus taking 5” out of the tail stock end will remove the void that is on that end. I forgot to get pictures of the blank before turned.

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## T. Ben (Jun 29, 2020)




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## Brandon Sloan (Jun 29, 2020)

I parted off enough material to get to the point at which the diameter was 3 1/2” so that my smallest faceplate would fit. I got it remounted and started to drill out some of the inside. The old forstner bit was not very successful. Went and bought a new bit. 2 1/8” is the sweet spot for me. It gives the chuck 1/16” clearance and allows me to drill deeper without any extensions. I drilled 10” deep leaving 1/2” of material on the bottom. I like to leave at least 1/2” on the bottom to give me a little flexibility in case I need to alter the base or my hollowing tools take off a little on the bottom. I’m using the simple hollowing system with the 5/8” adapter. The cutters are Trent Bosch. My straight cutter ran out of cutting surface and needs to be replaced. I ended up doing all of the hollowing with the bent tool. I left it a little thick so I can refine it when the new cutter arrives. I kept the design simple, no need to take away from the woods natural beauty. I’ll do a little CA on a few knots that showed up and wait for the new cutter to arrive.

View attachment 189848

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## tmar (Jun 29, 2020)

I was looking and looking at your pics wondering how that one post that the hollower is mounted on could support the arm deep in that burl... then I saw the last pic with the tool rest and I figgered it out.  Can't wait to see the finished product...

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## TheWoodWizard (Jun 29, 2020)

Wow a vertical lathe!

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## ripjack13 (Jun 29, 2020)

TheWoodWizard said:


> Wow a vertical lathe!



Ha! I thought the same too. 
I rotated em now though....(I hope)


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## Brandon Sloan (Jun 30, 2020)

The pictures that disappeared. I don’t know why they keep rotating. Maybe one of the mods can help.















View attachment 189868

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## Gdurfey (Jun 30, 2020)

@Brandon Sloan , Brandon, remind me, weren't you cleaning our getting ready to move?????????????????????????????????????????

Gorgeous work; don't worry, I'm just a jerk...….I would have done exactly what you did....under the cover of darkness so the Mrs didn't catch me!!

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## Brandon Sloan (Jun 30, 2020)

Gdurfey said:


> @Brandon Sloan , Brandon, remind me, weren't you cleaning our getting ready to move?????????????????????????????????????????
> 
> Gorgeous work; don't worry, I'm just a jerk...….I would have done exactly what you did....under the cover of darkness so the Mrs didn't catch me!!


I’m guilty of getting sidetracked. The wife wasn’t happy, I have a laundry list of things to do for our move. But seriously, how could I resist.

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## barry richardson (Jun 30, 2020)

Great looking figure on your stuff!

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## Brandon Sloan (Jun 30, 2020)

I found the 1/2” adapter for my hollowing system and was able to use the round carbide cutter that came with the system to thin and smooth the inside. Since I was set up to hollow, I worked on some other pieces that were in various stages of finish. The burl needs a few days to dry, the other pieces are ready for a finish. Productive day on the lathe.

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## Brandon Sloan (Jul 2, 2020)

The big piece of burl I had is finished on the lathe. I’ll still do a little sanding and finish it when it’s dry. The biggest take away from this project is that I shouldn’t get attached to a piece of wood. I did a lot of second guessing and worrying, but at the end of the day, it’s just a piece of wood. Happy with the results though. Here’s some pictures.

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## Gdurfey (Jul 2, 2020)

Wow........

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## Tony (Jul 2, 2020)

That is a spectacular bowl!

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## Brandon Sloan (Jul 3, 2020)

Tony said:


> That is a spectacular bowl!


Definitely can’t complain on how this turned out.


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## Brandon Sloan (Jul 3, 2020)

Gdurfey said:


> Wow........


The wood is beautiful, hopefully my turning did it justice.


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## Gdurfey (Jul 3, 2020)

@Brandon Sloan , incredible wood always helps, but Brandon, your skills bring it alive!

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## Mr. Peet (Jul 3, 2020)

Brandon, I need to buy some Alaskan white birch. Barb sent me some, but it checked more than expected. Just want to make some reference samples. You have a line on some?


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## Brandon Sloan (Jul 3, 2020)

Mr. Peet said:


> Brandon, I need to buy some Alaskan white birch. Barb sent me some, but it checked more than expected. Just want to make some reference samples. You have a line on some?


I have a surplus, let me know how much you need and it’s your’s.


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## Mr. Peet (Jul 3, 2020)

No


Brandon Sloan said:


> I have a surplus, let me know how much you need and it’s your’s.



Not sure yet. My samples finish at 3" wide by 6" long by 1/2" thick. I like getting a few, having a 1/4 sawn and a flat sawn sample is great Having heartwood and sapwood in one or both just adds to the prize. A friend is always surprising me with samples, and has a fetish with wine stoppers. So I try to have some stopper material for him too. 
Any other odd native trees? Barb did hook me up with some quaking aspen burl...still drying.

Alaska paper birch 




_Betula neoalaskana_


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## Brandon Sloan (Jul 3, 2020)

I put CA on the bark inclusions. It was terrible. All I have right now is thin. It runs all over the place, even shot it through a 25 gauge syringe and it still runs. Got the job done. Anytime I have to put CA on a piece, I always apply Yorkshire grit first. It prevents the CA from soaking into the surrounding wood and gives me a chance to wipe it up. I learned that the CA soaks right through the paper towel and my hands become one with the paper towel. 

I cut one of the other pieces in half and threw it on the lathe. This piece is borderline burl, like 10% maybe. It was the closest to the pith of the log. It turned out to be a pretty cool piece. At least I think so. Here it is.

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## Brandon Sloan (Jul 3, 2020)

Mr. Peet said:


> No
> 
> 
> Not sure yet. My samples finish at 3" wide by 6" long by 1/2" thick. I like getting a few, having a 1/4 sawn and a flat sawn sample is great Having heartwood and sapwood in one or both just adds to the prize. A friend is always surprising me with samples, and has a fetish with wine stoppers. So I try to have some stopper material for him too.
> ...


I have some pretty large diamond willows. I’ll have to check what type of willow it is. The grain is beautiful though. I’ll get you some samples together.


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## Mr. Peet (Jul 3, 2020)

Brandon Sloan said:


> I have some pretty large diamond willows. I’ll have to check what type of willow it is. The grain is beautiful though. I’ll get you some samples together.



Sounds Good Brandon. Look forward to your findings. I'm out, good night.


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## Barb (Jul 4, 2020)

That is the prettiest birch burl I've ever seen and I've seen a lot up here. Awesome job!

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## Brandon Sloan (Jul 6, 2020)

Barb said:


> That is the prettiest birch burl I've ever seen and I've seen a lot up here. Awesome job!


Thank you Barb, I was surprised when I cut into it. I’m going to pick up another one this week. I’m sure you remember the Great Alaskan Bowl Company? The guy I got the burls from told me that he dropped a truck load of burls off at the bowl company for store credit. He said his wife likes to get gifts for people from there. I wish I had known that, for a truck load of burls, I’d make his wife whatever she wanted. They make nesting bowl sets out of the bigger burls and sell them for $1000.

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## Barb (Jul 6, 2020)

Brandon Sloan said:


> Thank you Barb, I was surprised when I cut into it. I’m going to pick up another one this week. I’m sure you remember the Great Alaskan Bowl Company? The guy I got the burls from told me that he dropped a truck load of burls off at the bowl company for store credit. He said his wife likes to get gifts for people from there. I wish I had known that, for a truck load of burls, I’d make his wife whatever she wanted. They make nesting bowl sets out of the bigger burls and sell them for $1000.


Oh yeah I remember that place. I got a set for my parents around 20 years ago. A truckload of burls would be a huge score. Maybe you can still make a deal with him.

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## Flacer22 (Jul 8, 2020)

Looks awesome that burl had really nice figure


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## Brandon Sloan (Jul 31, 2020)

I laid down the first coat of finish and this piece came alive. I wanted to share it with my WB friends.

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## Eric Rorabaugh (Jul 31, 2020)

That's a beaut!

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## trc65 (Jul 31, 2020)

It really came alive!

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## Don Van Dyne (Jul 31, 2020)

VERY cool!

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## T. Ben (Jul 31, 2020)

Very nice!!

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## Barb (Jul 31, 2020)

Gorgeous!

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## DKMD (Jul 31, 2020)

Beautiful stuff!

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## Gdurfey (Jul 31, 2020)

How the heck did that happen? It was a pretty, interesting, exciting (20 more adjectives) pieces, but wow. I am still new enough to all of this that it completely blows me away when something like this happens with a finish. Great job Brandon.

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## Brandon Sloan (Aug 5, 2020)

Gdurfey said:


> How the heck did that happen? It was a pretty, interesting, exciting (20 more adjectives) pieces, but wow. I am still new enough to all of this that it completely blows me away when something like this happens with a finish. Great job Brandon.


I have about 12 coats of lacquer on it at this point. It’s been raining for three days, so I haven’t been able to spray anymore. If the weather cooperates, I hope to get about 25 coats before I wet sand and hand rub. It should really pop if all goes well.


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## Brandon Sloan (Aug 5, 2020)

This is the last piece of the birch burl. It is screaming at me to throw it in the firewood pile. I thought it might be cool to turn an open vase. It wasn’t, the damn thing is held together with CA glue and flexes with every rotation of the lathe. I couldn’t get a clean finish cut on the inside. I couldn’t shape the outside any further or I would have lost the top 3 inches. Ill post a picture of the inside later today. I doubt I’ll take this any further, so this is it for my birch burl.

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## T. Ben (Aug 5, 2020)




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## Barb (Aug 6, 2020)

Brandon Sloan said:


> This is the last piece of the birch burl. It is screaming at me to throw it in the firewood pile. I thought it might be cool to turn an open vase. It wasn’t, the damn thing is held together with CA glue and flexes with every rotation of the lathe. I couldn’t get a clean finish cut on the inside. I couldn’t shape the outside any further or I would have lost the top 3 inches. Ill post a picture of the inside later today. I doubt I’ll take this any further, so this is it for my birch burl.
> 
> View attachment 191644
> 
> ...


That’s still pretty cool! How about putting a couple of walnut(or contrasting wood) butterflies in the side that’s completely open on the bottom half? It’ll make it a bit less fragile and look even more unique.

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## Brandon Sloan (Aug 6, 2020)

Barb said:


> That’s still pretty cool! How about putting a couple of walnut(or contrasting wood) butterflies in the side that’s completely open on the bottom half? It’ll make it a bit less fragile and look even more unique.


That’s a perfect idea. The biggest hurdle is spending the time to get the inside smooth. It’s a big eyesore. I could see the piece moving when it was spinning.


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## Barb (Aug 6, 2020)

Brandon Sloan said:


> That’s a perfect idea. The biggest hurdle is spending the time to get the inside smooth. It’s a big eyesore. I could see the piece moving when it was spinning.


Yeah that’ll take some time. I’m amazed you were able to get that much turned without it flying apart. Will your duct tape and plastic method work on finishing the inside?


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## Brandon Sloan (Aug 6, 2020)

Barb said:


> Yeah that’ll take some time. I’m amazed you were able to get that much turned without it flying apart. Will your duct tape and plastic method work on finishing the inside?


Not this time. I tried but I need to come up with something to keep the tape and plastic from being cut where there’s no wood. I marked up some pictures to better show what I’m talking about.


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## Barb (Aug 6, 2020)

Oh yeah...


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## Brandon Sloan (Aug 6, 2020)

Barb said:


> Oh yeah...


That’s why the neck is a little fat looking. If I had removed anymore material, I wouldn’t of had much material left. It was a fun attempt, and might have been a neat piece. Maybe I’ll revisit it.


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## Barb (Aug 6, 2020)

Maybe something like this would work? A piece of flexible plastic taped to the outside to keep it fairly stable so you can get to the inside. I don't have anything open sided like you to take the pic with. I'm not that brave yet lol. Then again, if it's too flexible it probably still wouldn't work.

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## Brandon Sloan (Aug 6, 2020)

Barb said:


> Maybe something like this would work? A piece of flexible plastic taped to the outside to keep it fairly stable so you can get to the inside. I don't have anything open sided like you to take the pic with. I'm not that brave yet lol. Then again, if it's too flexible it probably still wouldn't work.
> View attachment 191706


That’s ingenious!! I think it would work. The main issue is just getting that void area rigid. I’m gonna give this a try and I’ll report back.

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## ClintW (Aug 6, 2020)

Birch curl is so beautiful! Very nice use of a great wood!

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## Brandon Sloan (Aug 7, 2020)

ClintW said:


> Birch curl is so beautiful! Very nice use of a great wood!


Update, we have about 15 coats of lacquer. It’s getting that nice fake look I was going for. My town is in a lacquer crises. Had to go to 4 different places. Lowe’s, Home Depot, Samson’s, didn’t have any. Found it at a place called Spenards builder supply. Bonus points for carrying deft and minwax. Went with deft.

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## T. Ben (Aug 8, 2020)

That was worth the wait,gorgeous piece.

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## Barb (Aug 8, 2020)

Very nice! It looks like it has a glass finish now.

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## Brandon Sloan (Aug 8, 2020)

Barb said:


> Very nice! It looks like it has a glass finish now.


Barb, this will be the first time that I “finish the finish” I have been reading up on finishing and am going to lay down 25 coats of lacquer. Wet sand to 2000 grit and then buff with a product called wizards mystic cut. Hopefully after all that, it will look like glass.

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## Barb (Aug 8, 2020)

Brandon Sloan said:


> Barb, this will be the first time that I “finish the finish” I have been reading up on finishing and am going to lay down 25 coats of lacquer. Wet sand to 2000 grit and then buff with a product called wizards mystic cut. Hopefully after all that, it will look like glass.


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## Brandon Sloan (Aug 8, 2020)

I took a close up picture of the knot because I filled it with silver powder. Doesn’t really show up in the pictures though.


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## duncsuss (Aug 9, 2020)

Brandon Sloan said:


> Barb, this will be the first time that I “finish the finish” I have been reading up on finishing and am going to lay down 25 coats of lacquer. Wet sand to 2000 grit and then buff with a product called wizards mystic cut. Hopefully after all that, it will look like glass.


Brandon, can I offer you an alternative to Mystic Cut? If you have a set of clean Micromesh pads, you can use DNA as lubricant instead of water, it evaporates off quickly and does not dissolve lacquer (it would strip shellac faster than you can say "why is this a sticky mess?", DAMHIKT).

The vase is beautiful, btw

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## Brandon Sloan (Aug 9, 2020)

duncsuss said:


> Brandon, can I offer you an alternative to Mystic Cut? If you have a set of clean Micromesh pads, you can use DNA as lubricant instead of water, it evaporates off quickly and does not dissolve lacquer (it would strip shellac faster than you can say "why is this a sticky mess?", DAMHIKT).
> 
> The vase is beautiful, btw


Thank you, I am always open to alternatives. I was having trouble finding a place that would ship the mystic cut to Alaska. The only source I found was NAPA and they aren’t cheap. Are you saying I should just wet sand with the micromesh and DNA, and skip using any buffing compounds? To be honest, if that will do the trick, I’m happy to not invest in buffing compounds right now. I looked into the 3m stuff and they are very proud of it! Thanks again for the comment and advice!


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## duncsuss (Aug 9, 2020)

Exactly that; if you have already used the Micromesh, just be sure it's clean before you start (no embedded particles from earlier sanding.)

I think the finish looks great without any buffing afterwards, you might look at it and think it still needs to be buffed - but you won't have lost anything except time by trying it.

One automotive product I've used as a final touch on pens is Rejex (instead of my usual Renaissance Wax.) Looks great, but makes them so slick that I usually drop them, which probably isn't a good thing for a fountain pen

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## Brandon Sloan (Aug 9, 2020)

duncsuss said:


> Exactly that; if you have already used the Micromesh, just be sure it's clean before you start (no embedded particles from earlier sanding.)
> 
> I think the finish looks great without any buffing afterwards, you might look at it and think it still needs to be buffed - but you won't have lost anything except time by trying it.
> 
> One automotive product I've used as a final touch on pens is Rejex (instead of my usual Renaissance Wax.) Looks great, but makes them so slick that I usually drop them, which probably isn't a good thing for a fountain pen


Thanks for the tip, I’m going to be wet sanding anyway so I don’t see it as any time loss. How long do you wait between your final coat of lacquer and wet sanding?


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## duncsuss (Aug 9, 2020)

Brandon Sloan said:


> How long do you wait between your final coat of lacquer and wet sanding?


Lacquer usually dries very quickly, I don't think you even have to wait overnight to do this. Keeping the Micromesh wet to continuously remove dust and stop it clumping is the important part. I've seen it demonstrated with application of lacquer and Micromeshing all at the same turning club meeting - perhaps there was a 15 minutes break (I'm not recommending this short an interval, just saying that "I've seen it done")


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