Richard A. wrote:
I just finished my first woodworking project. This is from a guy who
never made so much as a birdhouse before. It is a tray with the handle
cut in the sides. My wife saw one like it at Pottery Barn and wanted to
buy it for $40. I told her I could build something that simple. SO,
$70 or so dollars later I finished it. It might not look quite as good
but I suspect it will hold up longer and the sentimental value is worth
something.
The wood cutting part was fairly straight forward but cutting the
handles in the sides with rounded ends was a real.... pain. I learned a
lot in the process but it still would be a pain to try it again.
I sanded the wood (pine) down to 220 grit, but now that it's done, I see
that I should have sanded more. Then I used a couple of coats of
mahoganny stain. I then applied a sanding sealer. Probably didn't need
it with Pine but that's what the instructions on the lacquer can said.
(I suspect profit motives may have been involved). After spraying the
sealer, I did a quick once over with 220 grit sandpaper. I then sprayed
about five coats of lacquer. I used 4F pumice followed by 2F pumice and
then followed up with rottenstone. I finished it with a carnuba wax. I
feel pretty confident about the process and materials, but if anyone has
any thoughts or warnings about my method, please fill me in.
If I had it to do again, I probably would have used Polyurethane for
durability but I had heard a bad thing or two about it. Since then I've
come to recognize that it had it's strengths and weaknesses like every
finish out there.
I learned that a brush is okay for getting dust out of the corners until
the metal part around the bristles brushes against your wood and leaves
an ugly divit.
I also learned that you can't read enough about finishes, though it
looks like the best teacher will be experience.
A couple of thing are still bugging me. I still haven't figured out how
to properly sand inside corners (after staining). I guess using a q-tip
to remove excess stain in the corners might have helped and reduced the
need for sanding. It also bugs me that there are a few spots on the
wood that are near white. I didn't use a wood filler so I'm guessing
the lumber company (?) did... Any suggestions on how to fix this in the
future?
The important thing is that I enjoyed the process and learned a lot. I'm
starting on a multi-room martin bird house now. It doesn't require much
in the way of finishing....
Richard A.
Pine is ugly to stain and finish. It blotches. get used to it. yuk!
Wrecked a few projects myself with pine. :-) You can find some "test"
jewel boxes on my site made of pine. Only stained one. I can learn fast
when the lesson is painful enough.
Sanding inside corners sucks. Don't put anything together until every
piece fits perfectly and everything is sanded. We all learn that.
Staining them properly sucks worse. Maybe somebody can tell us both how
to do that. :-)
So far you are batting a 100.
I recommend the Minwax pre-stain conditioner if you _must_ use pine --
and then stain it. Works for me.
I have given up on stain (for pine) and now just use sealer/conditioner
-- whatever is handy -- then wipe-on clear poly. I'm sure you can
stain pine -- I can't though. LOL
Did make green dye work once on pine - that wasn't too bad.
http://woodwork.pmccl.com/Business/p...tsoutdoor.html
These were test items to learn about finishes -- tortured them -- then
refinished them.
Have fun with the bird house. People probably thought that you were
serious to that point. They forget that bird need houses too. grin
Do not paint or stain Cherry then post an admission in this group. They
will hunt you down and... Never mind! Just be warned. LOL
--
Will
Occasional Techno-geek
http://woodwork.pmccl.com