Repairing a staining disaster...

[deldridg]

Hello folks,

well, after toiling over a hot tablesaw/chisels/sanding block etc. for some time building a little shaker table yesterday it was time to do the finishing. My lovely wife showed some interest in helping with the staining and so I offered her the top to paint.

It's a little table, top is only 680x420 (using the golden ratio no less! Hehe :2tsup:) and we were recommended Wattyl Satin Stain and Varnish - "Walnut" for the top and "New Baltic Pine" for the legs/apron/drawer.

My wife set about painting the top with a certain matter-of-factness, leaving me in no doubt that she possesses some expertise in such matters.

After she'd made the final expert touches my inspection revealed that indeed she has a talent - perhaps unmatched by any living person. I truly doubt that anyone could equal the tremendous number of large dark blotches, multi-directional paintbrush marks or barely painted patches in such a tiny area! :oo:

Of course I was very encouraging - "Wow - what a beautiful job you've done darling... You didn't tell me you had done this professionally in the past... Really looking forward to painting our newly renovated rooms with you... I love you..." but my internal dialogue was more like "... damn, that's unbelievably horrendous... no wonder I won't let you iron my shirts... all my hard work and in 10 mins you've... how do I ensure noone thinks I did this...etc."! Hehe

Anyway, now it's my lot to try to fix up this mess and leave her feeling like she's done the magnificent job I told her she'd done!

So, today, after 24 hrs of drying I started to sand it back with 150. Boy, I'm going to have to buy a *lot* of sandpaper - 2 rubs and the paper is smooth with the stain/varnish. Have I sanded too early?

Some questions for you:

- have we had bad advice buying 'lazy man's' stain & varnish in one go? What's a better option (only for cheap pine - certainly not for quality timber)?

- in future should we use some kind of sanding sealer?

- what are the best steps to take now - sand the top right back and re-stain with the same stuff?

- what should we do to preserve the beauty of our Huon Pine in the next version of this table (perhaps better for another thread...)?

Anyway - whatever advice you good expert people can give us will be gratefully received. Right now I am a finishing moron (and my lovely girl is an enthusiastic beginner) but we have big plans to build our own furniture and renovate our house etc... Lord help us!

Many thanks in anticipation!
David (Turramurra, Sydney)

[watson]

Unless you are very diplomatic with any repairs that you undertake, all I can say is "David, you are in Deep Doo Doo"
Other more experienced finishers will be along shortly with good fixes, but all I will offer is a cupla good reasons ...(excuses) for obliterating the "loved one's" work.

1. It was the ambient temperature that caused the finish to fail
2. The "man" sold us completely the wrong stuff.
3. The dog ate it.

I wish you well mate.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

:doh:

To remove green finish, don't bother wasting sandpaper. As you found out, it clogs soooo damned quickly. I'll recommend a card scraper instead. And a bit of practice on an offcut first, of course. Personally I detest "the lazy man's finish." However, it may be a stroke of luck for you. It doesn't penetrate anywhere near as deeply into the wood as a true stain does, so once you remove the finish the worst of it should, hopefully, be gone. :) A novice may find it easier to get a consistent application of colour by wetting the wood down first, then wiping on a water-based stain using a small amount of stain on a damp rag. Once dry, lightly sand - with whatever grit you finished with earlier - to remove any raised nap. (In a worst case scenario, it's a lot easier to sand back than what you have now! :U) Good luck.

[deldridg]

Hello folks and thanks for your responses. I think I've managed to avoid hurting my wife's feelings - she's currently away on business and so I'll just quietly scrape/sand/restain and let her have all the credit (assuming I do a decent job of course!).

In future, I will certainly avoid the lazy combo product and do it properly. Good lesson on cheap pine, though I did put in a big effort in this little table - a fully dovetailed drawer, all morise/tenon joinery and it even lines up to the 1/2mm! :-)

Many thanks and will let you know how it all goes!

Cheers,
David

[RufflyRustic]

Hi David,

You can always say...... "I found out that you have to 'cut back' after each coat. I started cutting back and while doing this, I got distracted and I guess I got a bit carried away with the cutting back, so in the end as I'd ruined your first coat, there was no choice but to sand it all back and start again ..." Now smile sheepishly with fingers crossed behind your back :D:2tsup:


With pine, it always pays to put a coat of sealer on first. My preference is for UBeaut's sanding sealer, or I make my own from UBeaut's White Shellac plus some good quality metho. (not supermarkert metho).

cheers
Wendy

[deldridg]

Sounds like a good plan Wendy. I really do regret being a lazy bvm on this and not at least doing the sealer first!

Anyway, all is good and I've moved on to a few new projects now. Have to get good at this finishing stuff now though. :-)

Cheers,
Dave