How to finish large and heavy pieces

[bholland]

Hi All,

I absolutely love the wood whisperer. I am getting back into woodworking after a very long time. I find this site and videos to be really good and accurate, both things spectacularly missing from youtube. 

That said, I am finding gaps, particularly for beginners. For my first major project, I am building out bookcases. They are going to be 6ft tall by 32in wide. The sides, top, and bottom are white oak, the shelves are white oak plywood, and the back is white oak plywood.

What I can't seem to find any information on is how to finish a huge piece like this. I expect that when this is glued up, it will weigh close to 100 to 200 pounds. So how would you recommend I finish this?

I think there are two options but both are really difficult:

1. finish it in pieces before glue-up and use blue tape

2. finish it as 1 piece after glue-up and struggle with lifting the thing

If I finish it in pieces, I have to tape up all glued portions, fish each piece, and glue it up. I can't figure out how to clamp over varnish or shellac without cracking it. Also, I don't really know how to clean up glue from the finish. I will get glue out. On the other hand, I can easily access each of the corners and the harder to reach places and I can move each section individually. 

If I finish it as a single piece, I will probably have to finish it in the room it is going. In this case, ventilation might not be a concern but it is worse than doing it in my basement with a respirator, 3 windows open, and a door ajar.  Glueup is easy but I have a harder time reaching the harder to reach places. Pooling is far more likely and I have concerns about getting a smooth finish. 

Are there wood whisperer videos about how to deal with a few of these problems? I watched through a lot of the finishing videos and it cleared up a lot of problems but none dealt with finishing pieces and assembly. 

Thanks!

[RichardA]

I can't tell you if there any finishing hints on the WW site. However if you use the search button here, you most likely find a lot of info on finishing that will be helpful.   Oh, and welcome. You will get a ton of advise here, so don't be worried about asking.

[Chestnut]

I just built 2 bookshelves that were a hair larger than yours. I did one finished together and one finished in pieces and i HIGHLY suggest finishing in pieces. If you are cracking Poly and shellac with your clamps you NEED to use cauls with  wadded up cloth over the jaws and possibly reduce your pressure. The nice wade jaws that parallel clamps have are very helpful. After you have the clear coat on the shelves, I'd use epoxy as your adhesive. I highly suggest this for 2 main reasons 1 the open time will allow you to move slower and reduce the chances of damage, also it cures clear and the squeeze out if you have any will be easily addressed or not even seen.

Thirdly if you are getting massive amounts of squeeze out you need to address your adhesive usage and reduce or change your application. A little bit of squeeze out is a good thing but a lot indicates that too much glue is being used. If it ends up on the surface it's not doing anything other than waste.

Another thing that Marc does a lot is to separate things into sub assemblies. Glue up the sides the back the shelves so you have 4 -6 sub assemblies and then glue the sub assemblies together. You could glue the sub assemblies together do your finishing then glue for final assembly.

As far as gluing techniques with M&T joinery to reduce squeeze out. I brush the dies of the mortise liberally with a glue brush. Then the tenon gets a very light application evenly. I make sure that the tenon application is so light that it won't scrape off on the mortise causing a ton of squeeze out. I do this method with both epoxy and yellow glue. Long grain joints I'll spread the glue out with a spreader or brush giving a thinner even coating. It takes some trial and error for panels but once you get the glue amount figured out you  get get them together with minimal squeeze out and still get 100% glue coverage.

[Chet]

I don't know what your chosen technique for applying finish is but the two ways that I would approach a project of that size is with a wipe on poly like General Finishes Arm-R-Seal or spraying with an HVLP and a water bourn finish like GF High Performance or EnduroVar.  EnduroVar will give you some amber live varnish were as the High Performance is clear.  I do some of my pieces by doing a coat of Arm-R-Seal to deepen the color of the wood and make the grain pop and then 2 - 3 coats of High Performance.  With this technique you don't get any puddling of the Arm-R-Seal because the first coat always soaks into the wood and then spraying the 2 or 3 top coats goes on lightly with a spray gun unless you don't keep your passes even and moving.  It's is pretty easy to get good at spraying with a little practice.

Good book and DVD to get you started. Spray Finishing Made Simple  Watch the DVD then read the book.

[..Kev]

For me, it would depend on the finishing technique.  If I'm spraying then, I'm finishing after the assembly.  If I'm doing a wipe on then, I'll pre-finish.

Spraying actually makes it easier as you can simply stand it up - keeping lifted a little with blocks - and shoot away.  This is typically the way that I like to do larger pieces.

Welcome to the forums!

[treeslayer]

I’m with @Chestnut on his idea for sub-assembly, deal with any glue squeeze out with a damp rag, if you are cracking the finish with the clamps I think too much pressure is being applied, good clamps and a dry fit before assembly will help, welcome to the club and don’t forget to post some pictures.