On Tue, 31 May 2005 11:18:09 +0000, Bruce Barnett wrote:


Did you use all three steps of the Beall? The (red) tripoli seems to
undo fine-grit sanding for me. But then I tried it on bare wood with
very fine grain.
Yes.

I cross-buffed, holding the workpiece such that the buff contacted
the wood at roughly 90 deg angles with each subsequent buffing (|--/\). I
kept at the tripoli until the surface was all even, even though it dulled
some parts that the MM had done an adequate job on. Then I repeated the
process with the white compound. I kept at this step until I had the shine
I wanted and then touched it with the carnauba buff (which I had loaded as
heavily as I could).

I was concerned that hitting the bowl with enough friction to melt the
wax would also be enough heat to ruin the varnish. Not so.

The reason I lied about how many coats was because I had already been
called a liar about how I had applied the varnish (by brush). Since the
guys weren't interested in the truth, I didn't see the sense of
wasting any more of it on them.

A couple of the guys are potential customers. They won't pay the shop rate
I want but might give me the same amount of money if they think it took
longer than it did. I'll accept $20 / hr so long as it's based on 48 hour
days. ;-)

I've since buffed a few pieces that had BLO on them and applied a first
coat of thinned (2:1) varnish as a sealer, fuzz hardener. After I've
sanded them to final smoothness, I plan to apply a few coats of varnish,
sand it smooth (perhaps 600-1000 grit) and then buff. If there are no
ripples and the finished surface is uniform, I think I might be in
business.

One key to getting a healthy shop rate seems to be efficiency.

Bill