Our bedrooms have solid oak doors, painted white.
The boys beat the hell out of them in their younger years, now it's time
to get them looking good again.

I was going to fill all the dings with wood putty. My wife wants to use
vinyl spackle.

What's the best way to fill dings and prepare the doors for repainting?

Mitch wrote:
Our bedrooms have solid oak doors, painted white.
The boys beat the hell out of them in their younger years, now it's time
to get them looking good again.

I was going to fill all the dings with wood putty. My wife wants to use
vinyl spackle.

What's the best way to fill dings and prepare the doors for repainting?

You painted oak? :^(

For interior use like that, I'd use Bondo. That is what they used at
work ten years ago on 90 year old wood doors, to replace the collectible
brass doorknobs with ADA-compliant levers at a lower height, and none of
the filled areas seem to have popped or cracked.

--
aem sends...

On Sep 12, 7:01*am, Mitch Mitch@... wrote:
Our bedrooms have solid oak doors, painted white.
The boys beat the hell out of them in their younger years, now it's time
to get them looking good again.

I was going to fill all the dings with wood putty. *My wife wants to use
vinyl spackle.

What's the best way to fill dings and prepare the doors for repainting?

How big are the dings? Way less than a dime's depth?

Bondo will work great on interior wood work but it's a lot more work
than

Crawford's Paste

http://crawfords.com/c/htmlos/002747...packling_Paste

cheers
Bob

fftt wrote:

How big are the dings? Way less than a dime's depth?

Hundreds of little dings.

Glad to know vinyl spackle is a good choice, because I have some of that
on hand already.

So many chores today!

On Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:04:34 -0500, Mitch Mitch@... wrote:

fftt wrote:

How big are the dings? Way less than a dime's depth?

Hundreds of little dings.

Have you tried an iron and a wet washcloth? If they are dents, not
scratches, most will raise right back up.

Jim

On Sat, 12 Sep 2009 09:01:00 -0500, Mitch Mitch@... wrote:

Our bedrooms have solid oak doors, painted white.
The boys beat the hell out of them in their younger years, now it's time
to get them looking good again.

I was going to fill all the dings with wood putty. My wife wants to use
vinyl spackle.

What's the best way to fill dings and prepare the doors for repainting?


Take a close look at each defect. What I call a ding is a depression
in the wood due to crushed wood fibers. If that is indeed the case,
the ding can be easily steamed out. Put the corner/edge of a wet
paper towel or cotton cloth over the defect and touch it with the tip
of an iron. Repeat until the ding disappears. Allow to dry and sand
smooth with 220-grit.

I call it a "gouge" when wood is removed. Unfortunately steaming
won't work so well. I like to use Bondo, prime, paint for gouge
defects in the wood. The Bondo cures strong and fast, paints well.
Not saying putty or spackle won't work well, but I think Bondo is
better.

Mitch wrote:
Our bedrooms have solid oak doors, painted white.
The boys beat the hell out of them in their younger years, now it's time
to get them looking good again.

I was going to fill all the dings with wood putty. My wife wants to use
vinyl spackle.

What's the best way to fill dings and prepare the doors for repainting?

I've always used spackle - so special type - to fill dings and defects
on painted wood. I have also used wood filler - has caution for not
breathing sanding dust due to silicates - for bare wood, with good results.

In article ,
Mitch Mitch@... wrote:

fftt wrote:

How big are the dings? Way less than a dime's depth?

Hundreds of little dings.



That's a lot of damn dings. I'd be buying new doors before I'd try to
fix those. Paint's not all that forgiving with surface imperfections,
and you're going to be working long and hard if you want to make them
like new again.

Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,
Mitch Mitch@... wrote:

fftt wrote:
How big are the dings? Way less than a dime's depth?
Hundreds of little dings.



That's a lot of damn dings. I'd be buying new doors before I'd try to
fix those. Paint's not all that forgiving with surface imperfections,
and you're going to be working long and hard if you want to make them
like new again.

Why???? It's a couple hours work, maybe, w/ a filler and some sandpaper.

The crime, of course, if they really are oak is the painting in the
first place...

--

Take a close look at each defect. What I call a ding is a depression
in the wood due to crushed wood fibers. If that is indeed the case,
the ding can be easily steamed out.

Wow, I wish I'd read this first.

Oh, well, the job's done. The spacle worked great, and after painting,
the doors are smooth and new-looking.

My 12-year-old son got to learn that sanding is a lot more work than
just doing a neat job with the spackle in the first place.

As far as painting the doors in the first place, when we had an addition
built upstairs, the wife wanted all white trim. So we re-used the 2
doors that we already had, in addition to the new doors.

And they were all dinged up before.

"Phisherman" wrote in message

On Sat, 12 Sep 2009 09:01:00 -0500, Mitch Mitch@... wrote:

Our bedrooms have solid oak doors, painted white.
The boys beat the hell out of them in their younger years, now it's
time to get them looking good again.

I was going to fill all the dings with wood putty. My wife wants to
use vinyl spackle.

What's the best way to fill dings and prepare the doors for
repainting?


Take a close look at each defect. What I call a ding is a depression
in the wood due to crushed wood fibers. If that is indeed the case,
the ding can be easily steamed out. Put the corner/edge of a wet
paper towel or cotton cloth over the defect and touch it with the tip
of an iron. Repeat until the ding disappears. Allow to dry and sand
smooth with 220-grit.

I call it a "gouge" when wood is removed. Unfortunately steaming
won't work so well. I like to use Bondo, prime, paint for gouge
defects in the wood. The Bondo cures strong and fast, paints well.
Not saying putty or spackle won't work well, but I think Bondo is
better.

The bondo bit is interesting and something I never thought of before. I
can see where it might be good with gouges on painted doors, especially
when there is substantial surface damage or missing wood.
I assume though, that with stained doors (or whatever), it would look
pretty bad, would it not?
Plastic wood with very fine sanding dust in it still seems like the
best way there; or do you think I'm in error?

Just curious,

Twayne`

On Sep 13, 10:49*am, Mitch Mitch@... wrote:
Take a close look at each defect. *What I call a ding is a depression
in the wood due to crushed wood fibers. * If that is indeed the case,
the ding can be easily steamed out.

Wow, I wish I'd read this first.

Oh, well, the job's done. *The spacle worked great, and after painting,
the doors are smooth and new-looking.

My 12-year-old son got to learn that sanding is a lot more work than
just doing a neat job with the spackle in the first place. *

As far as painting the doors in the first place, when we had an addition
built upstairs, the wife wanted all white trim. *So we re-used the 2
doors that we already had, in addition to the new doors.

And they were all dinged up before.

Mitch-

That's why I suggested Crawford's Free Spackling Paste (sorry for the
original typo)

.....drys fast, sands WAY easier than most spackling compounds...like
20% of the effort of most

cheers
Bob.