Hello everyone,
This is my first post about my first wood project. I built some nightstands and I am concerned with the top. The wood is maple and I followed the General Finish process of applying Seal-A-Cell (wait 24 hours) and then wipe on coats of Arm-R-Seal (satin) with a damp (damp with Arm-R-Seal) t-shirt folded. I applied very thin coats and sanded with gray synthetic steel wool lightly. For the last coat (6 total), I thinned with mineral spirits 25%. For good measure, I made a special paint booth for my wiping coats. Before I entered the booth, I spray myself with water as I am the greatest source of lint. It worked out wonderful. I did this because I don't trust myself to rub out the finish. I did not spend too much time wiping. I wipe across the grain, then look at a low angle to make sure I got the entire surface covered, then I gently wipe with the grain --done. 1 minute total. But for some reason I see some streaking only at very low angles of light looking into the sun. I have supplied some pictures. Other then this, I am very happy with my work. Am I expecting too much? Am I being too particular? Is this what is expected with wipe-on finish?
Figure 1 shows a top view with flash. Figure 4 shows my custom paint booth. I used it before for spraying water based generals with very good results. I am extremely pleased with the lack of lint and dust nibs (and bugs) with my wipe-on finish. Figure 9 shows the same table top at a low angle with no flash. Notice the streaking? It is kind of hard to capture on camera. Figure 2 shows a low angle view with the flash and you can see some of that streaking here.