Problems with Finish

[Joe H. Davis]

Being new at this hobby I have a 100 things that I need to improve on. Items one and two right now is finishing and getting the inside bottom of my bowls to be nice and flat and smooth without any tear out.

For the finish I am using the “Mylands” sander sealer and then their “Mylands friction polish. Some days I can use this stuff without any problems and then like tonight I can’t get a good finish no matter what I do.

I usually sand down to about 120 down to 400 and then apply a coat of the sander sealer and let it dry in the case of the current bowl over night. I then sand it back smooth so that it is smooth to the touch

I then take a small piece of cotton or a piece of paper towel and soak it up with the wax and apply it to the bowl. Sometime like tonight I get these streaks in the finish and I just can’t seem to be able to buff them out. Any suggestions on what I may be doing wrong?

I have attached a picture of my latest bowl that I working on. The bowl was from a freshly cut Juniper and I had rough turned it and had it in the freezer the last couple of months. The cracks formed either when I was roughing it out or while it was in the Freeze.

[Chris Barton]

Hi Joe,

Nice looking piece! I continue to work on making the interior of my bowls as smooth as the outsides and using shear scrapers seem to help a lot. As to the cracks you got, juniper and cedar almost always crack no matter what you do.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Joe I agree with Chris. Juniper, spruce, cedar all seem to crack. I have had the best luck especially with cedar using the DNA soak method. As far as the streaks go could it be that the wood is soaking up the finish in one spot and not another. I know when I use antique oil it will be shiney in one place and dull in another because it soaked all the finish in. Just a guess.

[Jerry Clark]

Another problem may be moisture under the sanding sealer. Sanding and buffing will cause the moisture to come to the top. I also see that you have the "Approved" mustard lathe for turning!

[Joe H. Davis]

Another problem may be moisture under the sanding sealer. Sanding and buffing will cause the moisture to come to the top. I also see that you have the "Approved" mustard lathe for turning!

Yeah, I was considering the jet, but three things fell into place when I was looking for a lathe. I happened to stop by a store that had the "Mustard" on display and I like the looks of it's beefyness and had read a lot of good things about it. Two, I received a nice bonus from work and finally I found a good deal from a local tool shop that had the A model on a big discount.

I really like the ability of being able to move the head down to the end as it makes doing the inside of bowls a lot easier. The only issue that really isn't really an issue is that it takes two men and a small boy to move things around.

[Joe H. Davis]

Another problem may be moisture under the sanding sealer. Sanding and buffing will cause the moisture to come to the top. I also see that you have the "Approved" mustard lathe for turning!

I have included another picture that better shows the problem that I am Phaving. I have used other finishes like Deft and Polyurathane on pens and wine stoppers and if you try to buff them before they are completely dry the finish kind of balls up on you, and you get those ugly streaks in your finish.

I am sort of getting the same problems with the wax. I hope the streaking is visable on the attached photo.

Joe

[Jim Becker]

One other note...the friction finish is a little harder to use on larger object due to the fact you can "over heat" it while buffing it on. You may want to consider using a wiped on varnish, such as Minwax Antique Oil Finish, as an alternative to the Mylands product. The friction finish is shellac based and it's easy to "gum it up" on a big turning.