Thin, Quarter-Sawn Sapele Finish Suggestions Needed

[Paul K. Johnson]

Hello All,

I'm new to this forum - this is my first post. I'm a model-builder who is getting more and more into genuine wood-working and will probably be spending more time here in the future as I get past my current project and start getting into things I've wanted to do for some time now.

Currently I have some quarter-sawn sapele 0.190" thick that will be unsupported and needs a finish. These are pieces that were previously finished with rattle can lacquer. It's the first time I ever used lacquer that wasn't the brushing variety and the finish was a mess. It never cured properly and any pieces that were laid on top of each other got stuck together tearing the finish from one or both pieces when they were separated.

This is long after (years) the finish was applied. It felt dry but something went horribly wrong.

Anyway, that's all beside the point. That finish was scrapped and sanded away. The pieces were originally 1/4" thick but because of a design change they need to be thinned so my thickness sander took care of that.

These are magnetic fixtures that I use to build model aircraft although they would also work for a lot of other things.

The fixtures range in size from 1-1/2" tall to 10-1/2" tall in 1" increments. I have 60+ of them to finish.

This is the system. Everything you see at the link is the old style. The only place you'll see the new style is on the page to order fixture sets.

http://www.airfieldmodels.com/inform...oard/index.htm

The vertical presses are hard maple which is what I will use for my set. I have a bunch of cherry that will be used for the next batch of presses sometime in the next year or two. When I make them I will swap my maple presses for cherry presses if I like them better which I'm thinking I will.

So the issue is that when I originally finished these they cupped badly. They are now pretty much dead flat due to many passes through the sander (I only sort of have a jointer - it was free and needs tons of work before I can use it).

My choices of finish on hand are satin brushing lacquer which I really like but am afraid of more cupping, two types of "Tried and True" from Lee Valley - Danish Oil and Polymerized Linseed oil and Beeswax or Oil and Urethane Top Coat from Rockler as well as "100% Tung Oil".

These are tools that get handled a lot. I want to avoid a finish that needs to be re-coated every so often because removing the magnets takes hours and it also takes them out of commission until they're cured enough to re-assemble.

Other than that I have whatever is available at Lowe's, Home Depot and there's a Sherwin Williams somewhere in the area although I've never been there.

Sorry about the long post but I wanted to provide as much information as I could.

By the way, all I have are very small scraps - nothing really to test finishes on. They're all 1" square and smaller. It won't tell me much about cupping probably.

[Chris Fournier]

The cupping is likely a function of grain orientation more than anything. Quarter sawn pieces should prove to be most stable. I'd go right for a varnish. Sherwin Williams has a Wood Classics line that dries fast and has been good to me. You could even just wipe it on.

[Paul K. Johnson]

I still haven't finished my fixtures. I have been dealing with a lot of disasters as well as trying to get things off my bench which meant building storage. I didn't finish the storage unit because I ran out of fixtures and had an emergency fixture manufacturing session that lasted six weeks.

The storage unit is done except for the top. I have a cabinet plywood top that is going to be edged with basswood because that's what I had on hand and this isn't supposed to be beautiful furniture. But I want it to be all wood. This one is in my office and will have the new top soon. I need to build another for my shop but it will be taller and narrower and not be used as a counter. The beauty of it is that the Sterilite containers are even multiples of each other so a tall one replaces two of the shorter ones without being just enough taller to take up a third spot and waste space. This cabinet or whatever you want to call it will hold 32 of the short containers, 16 of the tall containers or whatever you end up with if you mix and match.

In the mean time I made a bevel jig for my disk sander because every fixture has three bevels and I made over 1,000 fixtures.

Anyway, the bevel thing is finished with Tried & True linseed + beeswax and I really like it. It's not real wet so I don't think it will cause a lot of warpage and I love the feel of the finish. I plan to use it to finish my sapele fixtures.