Should have made two at once.....one to sell!
Hehe, seriously. One thing's for sure though, the next one I build will be a lot easier and a lot faster than this one!
i have spent the last 2 weeks staining kitchen cabinets, and he wait between poly coats is so painful
some orange clean took the stain off my arms pretty well
Hehe, poor guy, seriously! It takes an insane amount of patience! Next major staining / finishing project will require a dedicated room / finishing room I think. Orange clean eh!
I kind of forgot to take some pictures of the cabinets after I applied a pair of coats of polyurethane, but here's the status of the project so far
Both cabinets have been poly'd, and there are only 3 more pieces to stain + poly (The two caps for the end spaces on the top shelf, and the door for the right-hand cabinet). Otherwise, I am pretty much ready to assemble.
Before assembly, however, I wanted to try a technique I had been reading about - rubbing out a finish.
You start with some baby oil and a product called rottenstone (It's a very finely ground stone)
Apply some baby oil liberally (This slows down the cutting process. If you use water, it will speed up the cutting process)
Sprinkle on your rottenstone (Once again, fairly liberally. I didn't find the cutting action very aggressive at all, especially with all the baby oil)
Take a block of wood with a soft material wrapped around it, in this case, I used a piece of cut up fleece from an old blanket, but I think a felt block is the most recommended for this.
Go with the grain in long strokes, and rub the slurry into the wood. Its very fine cutting action should almost eliminate all dust marks, brush marks, and any small scratches.
This took quite a long time, and it was very, very messy. Baby oil rottenstone slurry everywhere. I then went through a ton of rags soaked in paint thinner cleaning it all off the desk surface in preparation for some good 'ol waxing.
Applied with a lint free rag, I swirled it onto the table a little bit too liberally
I then let it dry for a few moments and "attempted" to buff it all off by hand with a clean rag. Much to my dismay, after spending 10 minutes trying to buff only but a small corner, I realized that I would never get the shine I was looking for...
So I made a trip to my storage unit (My mom's garage) where I remembered I had an old electric car buffer in a bin...
Booya. It was late when I got back home, so I left it and went to sleep. Have a good weekend everyone - Canada Day tomorrow here in Canada, so I'm going to enjoy the long weekend. I'm moving this weekend too, so hopefully the desk survives the trip!!