The Shop > Wood & Stuff
Drum/ Thickness Sander
vtsteam:
For the thinnest finish I'd use a clear brushing lacquer, first coat mixed with talcum powder. This makes a very easily sanded sanding sealer. Use 300 grit paper on that by hand and you can easily sand by hand right back to the wood grain. Do a second coat (they dry in minutes) and sand that back w/ 300 grit paper, and you're ready for a color coat (if you want one. In the U.S. Krylon standard spray cans are colored lacquer. So I use that for fine and thin finishes.
Lacquers are super thin, not like oil based paint, or acrylics, polyurethanes, or just about anything else.
If you do use wax, that may work, but be aware you won't be able to paint it if you change your mind. The only thing that removes wax is ammonia, and not if it is penetrated into the wood. Paint won't generally stick to waxed wood.
S. Heslop:
Removed the table to put a bar across for the height adjusting screw to push against. I also found out that the motor gets in the way of the table when trying to remove it, so I had to take the spindle off. With it like that I thought I might as well paint it. The only paint I had that wasn't white was some purple emulsion. I don't think it'll do anything to seal the wood or protect it, but I figured that won't be a problem since I usually leave things bare.
I think the lighter spots are just where the paint is still wet. At least I hope that's the case, since i'm out of paint.
I guess I'll try think of a good colour to go with the purple to paint all the furniture.
Also that talcum sanding sealer tip sounds good. I'll have to remember it for when I finally get around to making a banjo.
vtsteam:
re. talcum powder -- modern baby powder is often corn starch, now, which you definitely don't want for a sanding sealer. The type to use is the real talcum powder, which is made from talc.
I have only ever used it in lacquer, or on early model airplanes, "dope." Dope is actually lacquer of two different types, butyrate dope or nitrate dope.
Anyway the main thing to remember is lacquer and talc for a sanding sealer. It sands incredibly easily, and when sanding smells like baby powder. Not so nice when it first goes on, though. Lacquers require powerful thinners.
I don't have any experience in using any other vehicle with talcum powder than lacquer, and suspect the they would NOT work well at all. Lacquer dries very quickly and very hard and quite thin. Most enamels, varnishes, etc are the opposite of all of those traits, and would probably be real mess.
The only exception I can think of is shellac (actually related to lacquer the lac in the name) that also dries fast thin and hard -- and is thinned with denatured alcohol. It might work.....
S. Heslop:
I always thought when I got as far as needing to finish a banjo i'd be going with nitrocellulose lacquer. It seems like it's the easiest to work with from what i've read. The meranti i'm using has some pretty huge open pores so I figured a sealer would be necessary, but I find the world of finishing pretty complicated. Especially so when it's hard to get ahold of alot of things in the UK. So i'm liking the idea of only having to source one kind of lacquer.
Although one problem might be the talc being white. I wonder if any kind of dye/ pigment would work well mixed in..
vtsteam:
Simon if you don't put too much in, and you sand it back, the talc becomes pretty much transparent, so you could bright finish it if you liked it with un-talcumed lacquer. Or if you wanted to transparent pigment it, most any aniline dye mixed with lacquer thinner would tint it to the degree you wanted.
If you want, try it on some scrap.
I use the sanding sealer on all of my casting patterns. In fact I just worked on my pulley pattern tonight and hit it with a coat.
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