Dining Table Finishing Schedule

[Tom Scott]

Most of my finishing has been very simple hand applied finishes, so I would like a sanity check before I commit to my dining table.
Construction and finish sanding is complete. I still plan to lightly distress per my client's wishes. The photo below is from the dry fit a few months ago. The wood is reclaimed (old) pine and the table is 9'x42". I have a new HVLP (Earlex 6900) setup, so will be spraying for the first time. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/smilies/eek.gif

What I am thinking:
1. Light distressing and then another final sanding.
2. Dye - Transtint Brown, but very light shade/concentration. I have done other projects with this wood and my other half liked the look with dye best.
3. Seal with shellac.
4. Glaze - to highlight distressing and give a more aged appearance. Something darker...suggestions?
5. Seal with shellac. Is this sealcoat really required if I'm spraying?
6. Finish - I'm currently thinking of using the GF Enduro-Var satin finish, but this is whole different world than I'm used to.

I would appreciate any thoughts on the above schedule and/or products, as well as any tips or suggestions.

Thanks,
Tom

[Scott Holmes]

Your schedule sounds fine. Personally, I would dye, seal, THEN distress. Distressing after the seal coat and before the glaze will help make the "damaged" area darker and more realistic. Damaged finish, then dirt will product some "bleeding" of the dirt (glaze in your case) into and somewhat under the "finish".

Your system will work; this is one way I've done it.

The seal coat after the glaze is to ensure the water-borne top coat will stick to an oil based glaze.

Don't get too carried away with the distressing; stick to ends, edges and areas that would get dinged over the years.
Post pictures when you finish.

[Tom Scott]

Thanks Scott. I will take your advise and distress after the dye...makes sense...and will not go overboard.
I hope to get started this weekend, with the goal of at least getting through the dye and first seal coat.

Question: For the glaze, especially since most is wiped off, is there much benefit to using an actual glaze or can dark gel stains be interchanged? The only time I have used this approach I used a stain, so not sure what the benefits of using an actual glaze are.

[Howard Acheson]

>>>> so will be spraying for the first time.

The best advice I can give you is to NEVER let a real item be use as a learning curve. ALWAYS learn and practice on scrap or cardboard boxes. Only go to the real item after you are comfortable and satisfied with your skill level. There is much more to spraying than filling the cup and pulling the trigger.

In my shop a new finisher worked with an experianced finisher for a week or so before he was given something real to finish.

[Tom Scott]

Thanks Howard. Spraying has always intimidated me...hell, finishing in general has always intimidated me...but just didn't see how I could get the finish I wanted without jumping into the deep end with spraying. With that said, I have my scrap/color boards, an extra leg from the build and large pieces of cardboard that I've been collecting to practice on.
For the first time ever, though, I'm actually excited about the finishing phase.

[John TenEyck]

EnduroVar is really nice stuff, and sprays pretty well. You definitely want to put a thin coat of Sealcoat shellac on top of the glaze to help the EnduroVar bond. GF is really specific about bonding with EnduroVar, so there must have been some issues with it. I've used a few gallons of it and have never had any problems. I spray with an HVLP conversion gun. Some products lay down beautifully smooth immediately. EnduroVar is not one of them. It goes on with sort of an orange peel look, no matter what I do, but 30 minutes later it looks much better, and 24 hours later it looks beautiful. So practice on scrap until you are happy. And if you chicken out spraying it on your table, it's not the end of the world. You can always wipe on GF's Arm-R-Seal and it will look just as nice and be just as durable.

John

[David Eisenhauer]

New-To-Spraying Tips on HVLP Eqpt Using Water Based Products (my take, anyway) - Practice, practice, practice on a large newspaper or cardboard panel until you have obtained some "muscle memory" for the following: 1) Get used to the correct distance to hold the gun from the surface until you automatically set the difference without much thought. I always tended to hold the gun too far away when I first started. 2) Hold the gun tip 90 deg angle to the surface you are spraying. it is easy to let the behind-end of the gun drop slightly when spraying a horizontal surface 3) Overlap each pass by about half over the previous pass 4) Maintain a constant speed throughout the pass. Start the pass from off-the-surface to through-the-surface and finish up the pass past-the-surface. In other words, don't hit the trigger when directly over the surface. Other general tips - 1) Less is best. It is easy to think you aren't putting enough on and want to go back over for "just a little more on this coat". Resist this as best possible. I find my dye and pre-topcoat shellac coats are particularly prone to running at the drop of a hat when working on a vertical piece if I don't resist the desire to come on a little heavier. Light coats properly applied will flow out. 2) When setting up to spray a piece of cabinetry or furniture, plan out your gun movements beforehand and organize the trailing hose and/or your body movements to be sure you don't run into a snag halfway through the operation. I spray large cabinetry and bookcases that I have better luck in doing in stages rather than trying to get the coat on all of the piece at one time. I might do all of the outer sides, outer tops/bottoms/backs first -walk away, let dry, come back - stand everything up - hit the inside of the sides/top/bottom and top of the shelves - walk away, let dry - come back - turn every over - hit the bottom of the shelves. Sounds like lots of steps but it results in less "do-overs" or problems to fix. I look at how much room I need to turn the pieces around in, how I am going to pull the hose around, how am I going to fit my-less-than-svelte figure around my crowded shop and not wipe of the finish I just put on, etc and use a lazy Susan to rotate smaller pieces with rather than walk around 360 deg. The "muscle memory" stuff will come pretty quick, just don't forget to plan the other stuff to save lots of hassle later.

[Tom Scott]

I finished up this weekend so thought I would post how it came out. A little darker than I would have preferred, but that is what the wife wanted.
Spraying for the first time went well. I know that could not have gotten the finish level I did without spraying based on my previous experiences.
Anyway, my finishing schedule went pretty much as I had planned. In speaking with Jeff at Homestead, he recommended the clear poly (satin) instead of the Enduro-Var, citing possible computability issues, so I went with his recommendation. Plus, he pointed out there was no real need since it was not going on bare wood.
thanks for all the help and recommendations.

Tom

[David Eisenhauer]

Nice table, nice finish. Homestead are good people to get help from. It is good when something new works just as it is supposed to, isn't it? Did you leave the table upside down to dry when you finished the underneath side or flip it to get to the top all on the same pass?

[John TenEyck]

The GF Clear Poly is easier to spray than EnduroVar, at least for me, so that might have added to your chance of success on your first spray job, which looks like it turned out very well.

John

[Tom Scott]

Thanks for the comments. The top was not attached during the finishing stage, so was able to flip the top during finishing.
The clear poly laid down nicely, and was probably the easiest part of the process. The only hiccup was a drip of dye on the table top that I could not smooth out. I ended up sanding it down to start over. That turned out to be a good thing as it went much smoother the second time around.