Chet Posted March 29, 2018 Report Share Posted March 29, 2018 What finish are you using? Sorry if you mentioned it in the past and I missed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted March 29, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2018 16 minutes ago, Chet said: What finish are you using? Sorry if you mentioned it in the past and I missed it. I don't think i did mention it. I'm still using Minwax wipe on poly beings that i bought a bunch of it at $6 a quart. I've used it side by side with ARS and the difference isn't noticeable let alone worth the $12 premium. Or was ARS closer to $25 a quart? I can't remember. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chet Posted March 29, 2018 Report Share Posted March 29, 2018 13 minutes ago, Chestnut said: Or was ARS closer to $25 a quart? I can't remember. If I remember when Marc did a video on the different finishes he mentioned that Minwax was now more then ARS and was guessing that the youtube world had made Minwax a more known product thus driving the price. I haven't actually compared the prices. The last time I used ARS I was following a specific finish protocol so I just bought it, I didn't shop price. And it doesn't matter for you because it sounds like you have a supply for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keggers Posted March 29, 2018 Report Share Posted March 29, 2018 Beautiful wood! Cherry is my favorite. You're doing a wonderful job and I appreciate you taking us along on your build journey! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted March 30, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2018 7 hours ago, Chet said: If I remember when Marc did a video on the different finishes he mentioned that Minwax was now more then ARS and was guessing that the youtube world had made Minwax a more known product thus driving the price. I haven't actually compared the prices. The last time I used ARS I was following a specific finish protocol so I just bought it, I didn't shop price. And it doesn't matter for you because it sounds like you have a supply for a while. Yeah he's changed his stance on it a few times. Early on it was ARS all the way then he was Wipe on poly all the way cause it was cheaper and now he's ARS again. I don't know where he sources it but i can get it at menards quite frequently with both an 11% and $4 per quart mail in rebate which brings the price down to $6 a quart. As far as quality i can't tell the difference, I've applied both literally side by side on the same project. Only reason i pick one over the other is because price is the last thing to go off of. I know there is a lot of hate on minwax products for some reason. Their stains are trash i agree, i really need to try some GF stains or try dying istead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chet Posted March 30, 2018 Report Share Posted March 30, 2018 1 hour ago, Chestnut said: i really need to try some GF stains or try dying istead. I have used their gel stain over the seal a cell and was pretty happy with it. I also have used transtint dyes and was happy with the result, but my first choice will always be to work with wood that provides the color I am working for. I did use some minwax once and didn't really care for it but that is just my personal opinion. I certainly don't begrudge someone using it if they are happy with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted March 30, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 30, 2018 7 minutes ago, Chet said: I have used their gel stain over the seal a cell and was pretty happy with it. I also have used transtint dyes and was happy with the result, but my first choice will always be to work with wood that provides the color I am working for. I did use some minwax once and didn't really care for it but that is just my personal opinion. I certainly don't begrudge someone using it if they are happy with it. Oh i only used it because i didn't know any better. After i knew better i stuck with it because i had the color i liked and didn't want to branch out. I agree on the color part which is why i use a lot of cherry and walnut now, but i still have a stack of oak and i can't stand the look of natural oak. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted March 30, 2018 Report Share Posted March 30, 2018 I do a fair amount of matching existing finish work when I either recreate or repair cabinet doors & drawers . The General water based stains and dyes give me a good way to sneak up on matching old finishes. They even have some guides on how to combine different layers to achieve certain tones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chet Posted March 30, 2018 Report Share Posted March 30, 2018 6 minutes ago, wdwerker said: They even have some guides on how to combine different layers to achieve certain tones. My Woodcraft store has a display of GF stain colors that are made by doing one part this color ad two parts this color or what ever the recipe is. They have created about 3 times as many colors as the original GF stains offer. I don't know if this is something that a store employee did or whether it came from GF. The display doesn't have anything from GF on it other then what stains to use to get a certain color. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted March 30, 2018 Report Share Posted March 30, 2018 GF even sells kits of colors and a mixing guide. My Woodcraft has the same GF display. I use them for small cans when doing testing & jobs with just a door or 2. One of the local cabinet suppliers carries GF and will color match stains, gallons only & it ain't cheap or fast. I always tell people that a color matched finish will be close but not perfect and it's time and materials. If you don't like the first result I will keep trying and you will keep paying ! Slows down those super picky folks real quick ! Did one door 3 times and just the finishing was $750 but it looked right. I had the doors that went on either side of it to work towards . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted April 2, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2018 @Chet This isn't as good as the previous sale but still $9 a quart is pretty decent. I'm going to stock up on my way home today. I also am going to do another side by side with ARS maybe a year more of experience will reveal something else. https://www.menards.com/main/interior-wood-care/polyurethane-clear-protective-finishes/oil-based-polyurethane/minwax-reg-clear-satin-wipe-on-poly-1-qt/60910/p-1444440477565-c-7966.htm?tid=9118359487352374537&ipos=10 compared to rockler http://www.rockler.com/general-finishes-arm-r-seal-urethane-topcoat-satin http://www.rockler.com/minwaxreg-wipe-on-poly I don't know how the sell it for as cheap as they do. Must not care about high margins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chet Posted April 2, 2018 Report Share Posted April 2, 2018 I wonder if Menards buys in a large enough volume that they can offer the better price you are getting. Side note: I remember when old man Menard owned an Indy Car race team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AceHoleInOne Posted April 2, 2018 Report Share Posted April 2, 2018 General Finishes "RTM" Product line. With just a few basic base colors, you can make all kinds of "brown" click on "COLORS" When you read something that says " 2 of these and 4 base. Base means the clear to mix the color with. Makes the color thinner and more transparent. -Ace- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted April 2, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2018 10 minutes ago, AceHoleInOne said: General Finishes "RTM" Product line. With just a few basic base colors, you can make all kinds of "brown" click on "COLORS" When you read something that says " 2 of these and 4 base. Base means the clear to mix the color with. Makes the color thinner and more transparent. -Ace- Maybe it's penny pinching maybe it's the desire to go my own way. I like the buying a dye or stain pre mixed and ready to apply but part of me likes the though of using aniline dyes in power or liquid form to mix colors. I could do 1 project and then never be able to reproduce the color . It would make each piece more valuable because a part of it wouldn't be reproduce able. I have some trans tint already and liked using it to tint shellac but it'd be interesting to use it with water and see how that is different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Chestnut Posted April 7, 2018 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted April 7, 2018 So I've still been working slowly on the chairs. As one of my previous posts mentioned i'm working on the finish. I got 1 full coat on the chair base before i realized that the corbels should probably get glued on before i put all the coats of finish on. To get a good glue bond i sanded the area where i was planing on gluing them on back to the wood. There was only one coat of poly so this was easy to do by hand. I used the Lee valley asymetric drawing bow to put a curve on the blanks per the plan dimensions cut them out and cleaned them up with the OSS. I was going to make a template like Marc did then i realized that they are going to be spaced far enough apart and if i use one as a template to draw on the rest and sand to the line it should be good enough. It was indeed after i had them all finished lined up in a row i couldn't really spot the subtle differences between them. Cutting them to mount on the chair was interesting. I realized that the angles between the chairs were almost all exactly the same. This got me a bit excited, most of the time everything has some slight subtle differences i can never make things perfect. It was also nice because i could keep the bevel angle locked on the miter saw, which cause me to need to devise a way to cut the piece flipped around. Scraps to the rescue. Also a while ago i mounted a MDF fence to the bosch saw. It's probably the best thing I've done with this saw. The mouth around the blade was so huge cutting anything that was shorter than 4" seemed dangerous (i'm exaggerating). I struggled with how to screw it on and get it to stay but not to have screws or bolts sticking out. Then it dawned on me to just super glue the thing to the saw. I busted out the blue tape put some on both the mdf and the saw fence and super glued it up. It came out perfectly strait and there are no screw heads to deal with. I used yellow glue to mount them up then continued with finish. I only have been applying 1 coat a day. I like to let the finish get a good cure in before i hit it with sand paper. The chair backs left with with an interesting problem on how to finish them really period. They are a weird shape and don't' really sit on a surface well. I wanted to be able to see both sides to prevent drips. my solution hang them from the ceiling. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted April 7, 2018 Report Share Posted April 7, 2018 Looking good Drew!! Really liking the walnut strip in the arms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Chestnut Posted April 13, 2018 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 Well finish is for all intents and purposes done. After the chairs get upholstered and moved around I'll touch up any small scratches and dings that occur. I still have to make caps for the pins that hold the chair backs but i have the dowels cut so i could put the chairs together. I had some birch sitting around so i made frames out of that. Used dominoes and slapped them together in an hour tops. Figured i'd saeve the best for last I'm sick of trying to contact people to get work done. I've tried contacting about 6 people heard back from only 2. From the 2 estimates, the one I'm going to accept is not cheap but the guy had a lot of leather items in his show room so i figured he knows what he's doing. I'm also sick of putting a few hours to try and contact people just to get a "We'll get back with you" and they never do. Now i have to decide on leather. Are there any leather experts out there? I'm trying to decide between Pure Aniline Semi Aniline or Protected aniline. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodbutcher Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 I cant help on the leather Drew, but the chairs look great! Was it a fun project? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chet Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 5 hours ago, Chestnut said: "We'll get back with you" and they never do. Unfortunately this can be a sign of a strong economy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted April 13, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 26 minutes ago, Chet said: Unfortunately this can be a sign of a strong economy. I don't find this to be an acceptable excise, in the event that you pass over a repeat client that will contract work in both strong and weak economies. My annoyance is their loss, i would only care if i couldn't get the work done. A very simple "we'd love to do the work for you but unfortunately we're too busy at this time" would have me consider them in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
legenddc Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 I hate it when people do that. We've had 3 contractors out to get an estimate to redo our deck. 0 have gotten back to us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chet Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 I wasn't saying it was an acceptable excuse, that is why I said unfortunately. And sometimes when companies get busy the customer service politeness suffers, again not an excuse. My business lives and dies by customer service and word of mouth, I do no advertising. And you are correct, I have had to tell folks that unfortunately I was too busy to help them at this time, I don't like having to do that but I am a one person operation. I do give them an alternate companies name that is a bigger operation and can handle short notice business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted April 13, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 8 minutes ago, Chet said: I wasn't saying it was an acceptable excuse, that is why I said unfortunately. And sometimes when companies get busy the customer service politeness suffers, again not an excuse. My business lives and dies by customer service and word of mouth, I do no advertising. And you are correct, I have had to tell folks that unfortunately I was too busy to help them at this time, I don't like having to do that but I am a one person operation. I do give them an alternate companies name that is a bigger operation and can handle short notice business. Oh sorry that wasn't the intention of my comment, i'm annoyed with the situation and was expressing further thoughts. I respect getting a comment like yours from a company. Though maybe they didn't take me seriously. I don't know what ever it was their loss. I wish contracting these people was like what i do for a living and if they fail to contact you do sub par work or are miserable we just fine them or don't pay them. Seems like consumer just get the big ole shaft. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JosephThomas Posted April 13, 2018 Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 Chairs look amazing. Good luck with the leather. Any idea what color/tone you are going to get? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted April 13, 2018 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2018 4 minutes ago, JosephThomas said: Chairs look amazing. Good luck with the leather. Any idea what color/tone you are going to get? Darkish brown. Leather is a very involved product similar to wood finishes. It's difficult to know what to choose here. Hence the question about what type to go with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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