I'm looking to put a finish on a maple workbench top. The primary
reason for the finish is to prevent glue from sticking. As the
surface needs renewing, I'd like to scrape it, refinish and move on.

I'm thinking BLO and wax.

Comments from the group?

Barry

On Tue, 22 Feb 2005 00:49:03 GMT, Ba r r y
wrote:

I'm thinking BLO and wax.

Comments from the group?

Linseed goes yellow in time, which always looks ugly on maple. Use
tung instead, probably a commercial "finishing oil" mix that already
has thinners and driers in it.

Then a hard wax.

These days I'm using an old 1/4" electric drill with a plastic bristle
wire brush in it. Nice old '60s drill, all metal body, but not enough
"grunt" for real drilling. It sits permanently on the shelf near the
bench and just gets used for buffing out wax polishes. Using this
instead of the usual bristle scrubbing brush I can buff out a much
harder wax than usual (twice my usual carnauba content) with mittle
effort.

On Tue, 22 Feb 2005 00:49:03 GMT, Ba r r y
wrote:

I'm looking to put a finish on a maple workbench top. The primary
reason for the finish is to prevent glue from sticking. As the
surface needs renewing, I'd like to scrape it, refinish and move on.

I'm thinking BLO and wax.

Comments from the group?

Barry


classic workbench finish. just do it.

Ba r r y wrote in
:

I'm looking to put a finish on a maple workbench top. The primary
reason for the finish is to prevent glue from sticking. As the
surface needs renewing, I'd like to scrape it, refinish and move on.

I'm thinking BLO and wax.

Comments from the group?

Barry


I used BLO on my beech workbench, for exactly the same reason you
described. I've been satisfied with the result. I never used wax on it
.... I had some small concern about making the surface slippery.

I used BLO on my beech workbench, for exactly the same reason you
described. I've been satisfied with the result. I never used wax on it
... I had some small concern about making the surface slippery.


Nate what about the ol' three equal parts mix? BLO, beeswax and turpentine?
Wouldn't that be perfect for a bench?

--
Alex
cravdraa_at-yahoo_dot-com
not my site: http://www.e-sword.net/

In article CABSd.109387$mt.26011@fed1read03, AAvK wrote:

I used BLO on my beech workbench, for exactly the same reason you
described. I've been satisfied with the result. I never used wax on it
... I had some small concern about making the surface slippery.


Nate what about the ol' three equal parts mix? BLO, beeswax and turpentine?
Wouldn't that be perfect for a bench?

Gotta put 'em in in the right order: Beeswax, Linseed oil, then Turpentine.

It's known as a BLT for short.

Particularly important if finishing a sandwich lay-up.

grin

Gotta put 'em in in the right order: Beeswax, Linseed oil, then Turpentine.

It's known as a BLT for short.

Particularly important if finishing a sandwich lay-up.

grin


munch munch munch! EEEEEYYYYUCK!

Is that how you feed all the guests in your SHOP???

--
Alex
cravdraa_at-yahoo_dot-com
not my site: http://www.e-sword.net/

I used BLO on my beech workbench, for exactly the same reason you
described. I've been satisfied with the result. I never used wax on it
... I had some small concern about making the surface slippery.

My maple is finished with a 1:1:1 poly/BLO/thinner mix. I wax about ever
other month.

I'm very satisfied with it. Yup it's amber, but that just looks aged to me.

It sheds glue and finish drips easily. It is a bit slick, but I have never
found that to be a liability.

-Steve

"AAvK" wrote in
news:CABSd.109387$mt.26011@fed1read03:


I used BLO on my beech workbench, for exactly the same reason you
described. I've been satisfied with the result. I never used wax on
it ... I had some small concern about making the surface slippery.


Nate what about the ol' three equal parts mix? BLO, beeswax and
turpentine? Wouldn't that be perfect for a bench?


Sounds good to me (and I think I recall that being mentioned in the
Workbench Book). But I've never used it personally, so I can't say.

Maybe one of the more experienced guys here can comment.

BLO is fine. I'd probably use what needs to used up. Any finish will
do, but forget the wax. A glue up needs several layers of newspaper.
I resurface/refinish the workbench top once a year or every other
year.

On Tue, 22 Feb 2005 00:49:03 GMT, Ba r r y
wrote:

I'm looking to put a finish on a maple workbench top. The primary
reason for the finish is to prevent glue from sticking. As the
surface needs renewing, I'd like to scrape it, refinish and move on.

I'm thinking BLO and wax.

Comments from the group?

Barry