Finishing drives me a bit nuts

[DeanJackson]

Okay. Finishing drives me a bit nuts.

I'm making my girlfriend a pencil holder for her office, and it took ten minutes to dimension, ten to cut, and maybe five to glue up; I'm half an hour into building the thing. So far, it has four coats of a hand sanded oil finish, and probably three more to go before I'm happy with where it is. This will take far more than half an hour.

I'm refinishing a buddy's wooden countertops, and a friend recommended 10-15 coats of thinned poly. That seems reasonable, but an extreme amount of time. (I'm going with three coats of danish oil and a strong prayer.)

Seems like everything that doesn't involve a spray booth... takes forever to build a decent finish. Is there something I'm missing? Home-shop finishes seem to take longer than the project they're going on!

[PaulMarcel]

That's why I've taken to calling "Finishing" "Middle-ing" because, at best, you're in the middle of the project nowhere near the finish line.

[DeanJackson]

That's why I've taken to calling "Finishing" "Middle-ing" because, at best, you're in the middle of the project nowhere near the finish line.

Okay, *that* brings a smile to my face.

[BuilderBill]

Patience, Grasshopper.... Various philosophers through the ages say: "All things come to he who waits".

Other philosophers have said "You pays your money and takes your choice" Are you ready to shell out the bucks for a spray rig, booth and exhaust equipment, not to mention the time and material to get good at spraying lacquer?

No, you're not missing anything. Time is money, which do you have more of?

Best,

Bill

[Bombarde16]

Okay. Finishing drives me a bit nuts.

Quoth the pirate, "Arrh, it's drivin' me nuts."

Seems like everything that doesn't involve a spray booth... takes forever to build a decent finish.

Even if you have a spray booth, you've still got the question of curing time for the poly and the time it takes to scuff between coats. It's one reason shellac is the best-kept secret in woodworking: The alcohol flashes off at warp speed and successive coats stick to themselves without any need for a mechanical tooth. Try it on a project and you won't want to go back.

[BillN]

Try this. Thin the poly with Naptha rather than mineral spirits. Naptha evaporates much faster so you can put the extra coats on right away. As to the shellac idea, that sounds good except for one thing - alcohol. If these countertops are going to have any alcohol on them you do not want shellac to be the last line of defense for the wood, because it won't be. The alcohol dripping down the side of the bottle will dissolve through the shellac. Why not put several coats of shellac on for the speed and then 2 coats of thinned poly at the end for the hard protection? That should speed it up.