Those marks you got are from moving the sander too fast over the
surface. Slow down, and don't put apply hardly any downward pressure;
you don't want to bog (slow) down the sander.

David

Gary Fritz wrote:

I went over it with 150 and 220, and got it to a glassy-smooth finish.
But I apparently have troubles running my new random-orbit sander
right.

The first time I did this, I found two small spots (after staining)
that showed corkscrew sanding marks. I sanded them out by hand and
restained over them, and they seemed OK.

This time, even though I was being extra-careful, I've got corkscrew
marks all over the place. There must be at least 6-8 of them. And
naturally you can't see them until you stain.

Am I doing something wrong here? Should I only use the random-orbit
sander for rough sanding, removing material, etc, and use a regular
sander for everything else? Except most of these marks probably came
from the 40/60 grit, didn't they??

sigh

Gary Fritz wrote in
:

I went over it with 150 and 220, and got it to a glassy-smooth finish.
But I apparently have troubles running my new random-orbit sander
right.

snip of some additional hard lessons

Well, after the ROS, at each grit, the procedure is to clean the surface.
Air, a soft bench brush, a shop vac, something. Then a quick wipe with a
rag, dampened with mineral spirits. That will show you what there is to
pay attention to.

With the ROS, I stop at 120 or 150. Everything thereafter is hand sanded,
with a block, to whatever the final grit is going to be. If oak, it's
often only 180, sometimes less, depending on what I'm going to do with it.

Someone said, probably more than one someone, that each grit is only to
take out the scratches from the previous grit. If you leave something
nasty from 60/80, then trying to take it out with 220 is a study in
frustration, and a waste of time.

If it were me, and it's not, I'd take a sharp card scraper, and go after
the spots with the swirls, then touch up the surface with the last grit you
used, only by hand, and with the grain, then clean and dampen the surface
one more time with the mineral spirits. That will give you the best
estimate of what the finish will look like, before you open another can of
poly.

Remember the patience part. Thanksgiving is still weeks away.

Patriarch

patriarch wrote:
Remember the patience part. Thanksgiving is still weeks away.

:-) But I'm sick of using the folding table!!

Well, I took it down to the wood, stained it, and as I said the stain
showed up a few corkscrews. But I said screw it, I am sick of spending
up-close & personal quality time with this table. I went ahead and put
on 4 coats of the Varathane DWF, hand-sanding lightly after the 1st and
3rd coats with 320.

The Varathane didn't make the grain pop NEARLY as much as the
Polycrylic. The wood was satiny-smooth after I stained it, and the
first coat came out fairly smooth.

The corkscrews are barely visible. I have to look hard to find them.
I doubt anybody else will ever see them.

18 hrs after the last coat, I can still dent it with my fingernail, but
it's already WAY harder than the Polycrylic. I'll let it cure for a
couple of days and hope it's hard enough for kid use by then.

Thanks for all the tips, everyone!
Gary

Gary Fritz wrote in
:

patriarch wrote:
Remember the patience part. Thanksgiving is still weeks away.

:-) But I'm sick of using the folding table!!

Well, I took it down to the wood, stained it, and as I said the stain
showed up a few corkscrews. But I said screw it, I am sick of spending
up-close & personal quality time with this table. I went ahead and put
on 4 coats of the Varathane DWF, hand-sanding lightly after the 1st and
3rd coats with 320.

The Varathane didn't make the grain pop NEARLY as much as the
Polycrylic. The wood was satiny-smooth after I stained it, and the
first coat came out fairly smooth.

The corkscrews are barely visible. I have to look hard to find them.
I doubt anybody else will ever see them.

18 hrs after the last coat, I can still dent it with my fingernail, but
it's already WAY harder than the Polycrylic. I'll let it cure for a
couple of days and hope it's hard enough for kid use by then.


It should cure a bit faster in the warm house, anyway.

I have a table that sits in our dining area, that my parents bought when
they bought a new home in 1955. The top has needed refinishing since about
1960. We keep a table cloth on it, and enjoy the best family dinners
around that table. I don't really know when I'll get around to building a
'fancy' one. Grandkids are too much fun.

Although I DID have a brief conversation with my daughter-in-law over the
wisdom of someone buying the kid a maple mallet and tool bench, and then
bringing same to my house. It left.

Collect memories.

Patriarch

patriarch wrote:
It should cure a bit faster in the warm house, anyway.

I let it cure for 3 days, then put it into service. We're using
placemats for now to reduce wear & tear until it can cure for a few
weeks. It's already pretty hard. The surface is much smoother and
easier to clean than the old flaking-off poly, and it looks beautiful.

I have a table that sits in our dining area, that my parents
bought when they bought a new home in 1955. The top has needed
refinishing since about 1960. We keep a table cloth on it, and
enjoy the best family dinners around that table.

This table is too pretty to cover up. Big family dinners are a rarity,
unfortunately, since both sides of our family live 800-900 mi away.
But we've had as many as 15 friends around the table for holiday
feasts. Now it's in good shape to do that again. Unfortunately
everybody already had out-of-town plans for Thanksgiving, ohwell...

Gary

Gary Fritz wrote in
:

snip
This table is too pretty to cover up. Big family dinners are a rarity,
unfortunately, since both sides of our family live 800-900 mi away.
But we've had as many as 15 friends around the table for holiday
feasts. Now it's in good shape to do that again. Unfortunately
everybody already had out-of-town plans for Thanksgiving, ohwell...


So make your own holiday! A quiet feast in mid to late January is often
welcome.

Glad you were successful in your refinishing quest.

Patriarch