Finish Before Assembly?

[Keith Starosta]

I am at the point where I am going to start assembling the different components of a blanket chest. It is frame and panel construction, with, in total, five raised panels. I will sand the panels before assembly, but my question is, should I apply the finish to the raised panels as well? The panels will float in the frames, and I'm not sure how much movement there will be, post-construction. Will there be enough that any unfinished edges will be seen?

Thanks very much!

- Keith

[Prashun Patel]

My rule of thumb is finish as much as you can before assembly, taking care not to finish where glue lines'll be.

I like applying a final wipe or brush coat (I don't own a sprayer) after assembly, but the build coats come out cleaner for me before assembly. The main reason is that I have a tough time sanding in corners and up to edges w/o leaving x-grain scratches.

Can't comment about panel movement.

[David Romano]

I am also making a blanket chest. I am prefinishing everything, except some small areas where I have to drive dowels in and flush cut them off. I tend to prefinish my projects, when it is practical. You do have to be very careful not to damage the finish while clamping and removing glue squeeze out and it inevitably happens. Msot of the time, my finishes are pretty easy to repair though.

For any area that is enclosed, like the inside of a blanket chest, prefinishing is a good idea. I would definitely prefinish the panel. It's not worth the risk of the edge showing when the panel shrinks, IMHO.

David

[alex grams]

On panels I have been doing, I finish the panel (stain/oil) then add the raw rails/stiles and then restain the entire object (I find with walnut and an oil/stain finish, that you get very little difference in color of the panel. There is more difference from each piece of wood than from the two coats vs 1 coat.

I then glue up the panel and restain everything (first coat for rails/stiles, second coat for panel). Then I sand down the joints and add the final coats (waterlox, poly, etc)


On a book case i have taken the entire back panel out and stained it and will fully finish it before I slide it back into the dados on the case. This allows easier uniform finish of the back and also of the shelves since i don't have to work in corners along the back panel when I am doing the shelves.