For newbies like me who want to get into woodworking, look in your area for organizations called makers workshops or similar. They are usually free and are basically Learning Centers for Hands-On activities like woodworking, hardwiring Electronics, programming, etc. I found one here in town that is putting on a free box making Workshop later this month for woodworking basics that I'm going to go to. I think my first project is going to be a multi hole recycling bin.
Awesome! It’s amazing how addictive it can become. Just keep doing shit just slightly out of your skill and comfort zone, and you’ll get less and less shitty at it. Tonight I glued up my new desktop made out of lumber I resawed myself. Got rough sawn lumber from a local mill for stupid cheap and then milled it down with the new band saw, the jointer, and the thickness planer. Gotta love that everything is glued up and perfectly level, flat, and seamless. That never happens! Hopefully it dries that way. It's a mixture of cedar and pine, with the cedar edge being the front of the desktop... it should look pretty nice once it's all oiled up, based on other pieces I've done like that.
Progress tonight on the desk top... out of the clamps, planed to very flat and smooth, edges routed over (1/2" on the front, 1/8" roundover on the other edges), and underside sanded to 120 grit and then first deep coat of Tung Oil. Some solid progress this weekend, and I'm hoping to be able to use it by next weekend. When my dad died we found about $600 in unused Lee Valley gift certificates, which were then given to me. I bought something that I normally would never think of buying, which was that massive plane. I cannot believe just how much I use it, or how incredibly effective it is in flattening large surfaces like this.
I should also mention that I glued it up in small strips/groups first so that I could run them through the thickness planer to get them really close to the same thickness, then put as perfect a 90 degree glue-up edge as I could on them with the jointer. Then I used the Domino so that everything was exactly registered along the top surface when it was glued and clamped, so the only real less-than-good flat surface was the underside. The end result was that for the top surface, the planing required was just enough to get rid of what little glue there was showing up that I couldn't wipe off before it dried (I'd rather plane the glue than try sanding it which can induce divets), and the underside wasn't perfect, but it was close enough, for the most part, and it didn't really matter if it wasn't perfectly flat in the first place. In short, I try to be smart about the process to maximize the results while minimizing the amount of work required.
Oh, and I have drinks now, which helps with whatever muscle ache I may normally be feeling in my arms.
Sanded down the top to 120 grit and then mixed up some leftover spar varnish with about 50% mineral spirits for a deeply penetrating first coat. Once it dries totally I’ll then sand it down to 220 and reapply. Wash rinse repeat until the surface is filled, sealed, and smooth (tricky to do with such soft wood) and then I’ll focus on the final 3-5 finish layers and wet sanding.
If it's a desk I'd look to put some kind of hard film coat on the top. We had cedar desks at work and they were dented all to shit within a matter of days.
It's a computer desk... it's only going to have a couple of keyboards and some notebooks on it... the monitors and computers will be suspended off the desktop itself. In other desks like this I've made I generally put a few coats of Danish Oil, then a few coats of highly buffed finishing wax. It's not super soft to the point that it'll dent easily, but it has a nice silky finish that feels really, really smooth to the touch. If it has a few dents or dings here and there, I'm good with that... it adds character.
We had steel hutches, which was probably part of the problem. The mere act of trying to lift one onto the desk gouged the shit out of fair number of our desks.
This current desk is just another iteration on the previous two... it'll have welded square tubing frame, a large wood hutch on it that monitors will be mounted to on swing-arms, and will make up an entire wall unit in my office. Once that's done I'm going to be setting it up in the family room (nothing like working in front of the fireplace for some nice winter atmosphere), and then I'll be gutting my office and renovating the whole thing... new hardwood flooring, indirect Hue lighting, dedicated AC (all that gear makes it quite warm), ceiling fan, a custom welded rolling computer rack with automatic cooling, 3 other custom full-wall units (with embedded PA speakers and mixers and other music gear), wall hangars for my guitars and bagpipes and other misc music stuff, a TV wall unit, and a custom cat door out the window with some sort of ramp and cat sleeping area type thing (TBD). Basically, the plan this winter is to totally pimp out my home office. In other news, Amazon Warehouse Deals are amazing... just scored a 48" scratch and dent TV for the shop for under $200. The Apple TV is on the way, and it'll pump sound to my 3m Worktunes bluetooth sound suppressors.
Any tips for sanding stained wood before putting polycrylic on? I've read 220 grit--lightly--should do it, but want to know what you all think. Also, after the poly is on, any ideas for sanding as a final step?
I'd grab a small piece as a test... is it something that has previously been stained, or something new that you've just stained? Regardless, as a final prep before poly, I'd go with a very light 320 or higher. When it comes to the poly, it depends on the finish you're going for. How many coats of the poly are you looking to put on? If more than one, I'd do a light 220 or 320 just to knock the rough spots off between coats, knowing that the following coat of poly will fill in any scratches that were made. That sanding and finely scratching up the surface actually helps the next coat of poly to adhere better. I very rarely sand any wipe-on poly after I apply the final coat... I'll just buff it out with a cloth, and maybe apply a finishing wax if needed. (Sanding a finish like that can be tough to do without leaving scratches or other tell-tales). If I need to, I'll try some 000 or 0000 steel wool to take anything that may mar the surface off... like a stray bug that got stuck, etc. Again, with a test piece, I'd see how it goes, and then if you need to finish the final coat, try a 400 or 600 wet sand, lightly, with the grain. If you're going for a flawless finish, you're more into polishing than sanding, and that can get tricky, especially if you don't have a mirror-flat surface, because then you see the high points all nice and polished, but the lower points in the surface still look roughly sanded (by comparison). It's pretty easy to get to that "fuck, I should have just left it the way it was" stage doing that, which is why I recommend a test piece.
We're definitely going for a matte look, and not polished. I built a farm house style dining room table this past week while on vacation. Put one coat of stain on and the wife loves the way it looks now and doesn't want it darker, so I was going to do the polycrylic tonight. Since it's going to be a dining table, I'll probably do at least two coats, but I'll see how it is after the first. Thanks for the sandpaper recommendation. It pretty much follows what I've read so far, but I like to use this place to de-mystify any potential bullshit I've come across. I'll toss some pictures up when it's all done.
If it's a dining table, then I highly recommend a nice finishing wax or furniture paste. I finish all of my desks and table tops with this: https://www.minwax.ca/wood-products/specialty-products/minwax-paste-finishing-wax It does a great job of making a surface super smooth and soft to the touch.
Yep, after the poly. You basically wipe it on with a clean cotton rag, let it crust up and dry for about 10-20 minutes, then just buff the fuck out of it. It's like waxing your car... it fills in all the really tiny holes in the surface, and makes it nice and smooth. If you have any deep gouges in the surface, you can get crusty wax buildup, but a quick blast with a heat gun will melt it and help remove the buildup.