Finishing. Bought the book. Bought the DVD. Still have questions.

[MidKnight]

Marc:

I'm a beginning woodworker that has gotten a lot from your website and shows. Thank you for that. In fact, my first piece of furniture borrowed heavily from your Gadget Station legs. See below:

http://woodtalkonlin...ture-done-pics/

Where I'm really lacking is finishing. I bought your book and your DVD. They are full of great information. However, I can say that I would like you to expand in one area. You see, during the DVD you show us how to finish a flat piece of wood with the simple wipe on finish. But unless I finish all the parts of a piece before assembly, this isn't super practical. How do you wipe on a finish when you have a whole piece with all the inside corners? How do you secure your piece as you finish it? Is it up off the bench?

I hope you see what I'm driving at. And if you do have a video that shows the simple wipe on finish being applied to a whole piece and I've missed it, please, send me in the right direction.

Thank you in advance for any response.

[duckkisser]

for me unless its a cramed full day and i have a deadline i usualy put a layer on the upside of a project. for example i put a coat on the surfaces of a box pointing up. after it dries a bit 4-6 hours depending on humidity i flip it over and finish another side takes longer can be a few days before im done but with small iteams you want the finish to be as good as the project. i usualy use whipe on poly like min wax brand. for the first couple layersi just whip it on all surfaces and it does not run but the last coats i put a little thicker and take my time. as for keeping it off the table i use the centers of pizza's the three leged plastic pieces. just lay them down and have the points hold up the project. alot cheaper then those plastic triangles they sell in magizines for any price and you can get a pizza out of the deal mmmmmmmmmm

[MidKnight]

Duck:

Thanks for the response. I'm still lost on how you'd get in the inside corners. Such as with shaker style panels... there's hard 90 degree inside corners. How do we wipe the poly into those hard to reach corners?

I'd still like to watch the process done on a real life piece, instead of a flat piece of wood. I think that a true beginner such as myself would benefit greatly from it.

[Mister Pants]

Thanks for the response. I'm still lost on how you'd get in the inside corners. Such as with shaker style panels... there's hard 90 degree inside corners. How do we wipe the poly into those hard to reach corners?

If you can pre-finish before you glue up for inside pieces. It makes finishing much simpler as you don't need to worry about trying to get to inside corners after the fact. Otherwise a scraper or spatula with a finish rag folded over should give you the ability to get into a tight place.

[thewoodwhisperer]

When it comes to odd shapes and inside corners, I prefer to flood on and wipe off. So I'll either use two rags (one for flooding and one for wiping), or I'll use a foam brush to flood. The idea is to simply coat the surface, give it a couple seconds to soak in, then evenly wipe off the excess. As long as you don't leave an excessive amount near the edges, you should be OK. Obviously the strategy will change a bit for every piece of furniture, but the concept is the same. So instead of wiping the material on like we do on the flat panel, you flood and then wipe the excess. Once the perimeter is done, you can then wipe the flat part of the panel (or the inside of the case), in the same way shown in the video.

[duckkisser]

like marc said flood it on and whipe it off but i dont like rags I sometimes get lint and i dont use standard foam brushs. I find they do not absorb enough poly and in order to get ones that work well and give a realy decent flooding/even surface you end spend too much for something you throw away. instead i get the dense foam from a craft store and cut up into small squares on a band saw blade. i spend 12 dollers and bought a 2ft by 3ft rectangle that i cut into 400-500 foam squares for finishes. besides being incredably cheap it absorbs more then the standard foam brushes.

realy the best advise anyone can give is make practice pieces of any new finish so you know what the finish will do and do lots of experiments the best teacher is your own screwups.

[MidKnight]

Thank you Marc and everyone for your responses.

I've got a long way to go and a lot to learn! Hopefully you'll see me posting new pieces in the future.