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In my years of
woodworking, I have often "rushed" the finishing process — not because I
didn't appreciate the part it played. It was usually due to wanting to get to the next
woodworking project — to make more sawdust, in the vernacular of many.
This "prototype" 2 step library stool that we put together recently
prompted me to spend a bit more time on the finishing process. The wood is a spectacular
Birdseye maple, and it cried out for the best finish I could manage.
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I finished it with
VelvitOil. I simply applied 3 coats over a two-day period — hand buffing after 10
minute soak periods.
Several days ago, after letting the VelvitOil cure for a couple of days, I tested
my skills at bringing up the surface even more.
On the step that Beth is examining, I gave it a "spit shine" with
many coats of hand rubbed Briwax. I probably spent 40 minutes getting the best shine that
I could on this one step.
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To show Beth, I got
out different polishing systems that I have used. This one is a big buffer that I used to
use polishing cars. With wood finishing compounds, it works well, but it is heavy and hard
to handle — particularly on the smaller wood projects.
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Next in my polishing
treasure chest are pieces of the Beall System. The key elements of the system are the
three blocks of "stuff" in the foreground. The right hand red-brown block is
Tripoli compound. It is a very fine compound and is used first in the Beall Buffing
System.
The white block is Beall's diamond-white compound and the left block is the
wax. It is made of very hard Carnuba wax.
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The Beall System
offers the round ball-type buffs and special buffing wheels. I have used them both and
they work well, but I wanted to see if I could use the Festool Rotex 150 and their felt
pads.
I did, and they work extremely well so I will let Beth go through the steps
— you can witness.
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In her right hand is a
piece of cocobola that I practiced on the last few days. She has a piece of Brazilian
cherry that she will use to complete her test. At the start, it is 2S2 straight from my
local Woodcraft which has some really great hardwoods.
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Beth's first step is
to run the wood sample through the planer. This planer has two speeds, and Beth has
selected the "finishing" speed.
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So that we can have
a "sample" board with one half finished and the other half not, Beth wraps
several layers of nylon filament strapping tape around the board.
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She starts with 36 grit
disk. All the sandpaper and polishing disks are hook and loop disks so making this demo is
very easy. The 36 grit disk seems very rough, but what we want to do is to spend a minute
or so at each grit — working our way to 400 grit.
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Even with the 36 grit
paper, the Rotex 150 is easy and comfortable to use. The random orbital action quickly
smoothes out the fine planer marks. She used this grit for about 1 minute for this 6 inch
wide sample area.
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Beth finishes using the
sandpaper grits of 36,80,120,220 and 400. The disks are all there. You can see that almost
no sawdust is built up on the disks. This speaks volumes for the vacuum pickup
system of the Festool Rotex 150. It allows the disks to be used over and over again.
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Festool offers several felt
pads for use with their system. Beth has disconnected the vacuum pickup from the Rotex and
is ready to start the Beall System buffing. She will start with the Tripoli pad and
compound. I have marked each felt pad so that they do not get mixed up at other times.
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Buffing with the compounds
requires no different method that when sanding. She uses the compound sparingly, just
touching the spinning wheel lightly to the red-brown bar.
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This is what the sample
looked like after buffing with the Tripoli compound. It took about 2 minutes to get to
this point on this sample.
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She has now finished
buffing with the diamond-white compound bar. It is hard to see much of a difference in
these pictures, but Beth and I can see that the buffing is having an effect and the
surface seems to be smoother and shinier. Next, the Carnuba wax.
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Beth has just finished the
Carnuba waxing. Like the rest, it takes a minute or two before you see the final effect.
She has moved to the workbench where I have just installed a new work-light. The polished
portion really stands out.
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While mostly what the photo
shows is glare, the sample has a beautiful smooth finish with a rich semi-gloss. The grain
of this Brazilian Cherry is slightly open. A filler could be used early in the finishing
process, if we were wanting a higher polish. Fact is, Beth and I think that this finish is
ideal — it looks polished but without the layered look of a lacquer or varnish.
It took very little time to run through all the steps pictured here. The nice
thing is that the Beall Buffing System can be done at one time — no waiting overnight
for the finish to "cure."
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