Getting a good finish on Pine

[milesy]

Guys

a quick question - i have routed some pine for some picture frames and i have ended up in some areas of the pine some rough finish...im not quite sure why its there but it doesnt seem to want to sand smooth in those spots either.......is there a trick to getting a smooth finish by building up with poly or something to get this feeling smooth

sorry if im not clear in explaining but i hope you understand

[HOOKED.UP]

Hi milesy,

Not an uncommon problem.
You could use a sanding sealer, or a thinned down coat of your finish, varnish, ? paint, ?, whatever.
Sand with a fine grit. Repeat if necessary.
Hope this helps.

Paul.

[milesy]

thanks Paul

so what i have done is put a couple of decent coats of wipe on poly on it......if i wait a day or so for that to harden up and then sand back with some fine paper you beleive i should be able to remove the roughness of that area?

[The Bleeder]

Milsey,

Yes basically you got it. Coat with your preference and sand. Use grits above 400 for smoothing it out and try not to rub through.

[HOOKED.UP]

Good Luck mate.
This is not really a problem, just needs a bit of work to resolve.
You may have to repeat the process 2/3 times.
Take your time, you will be fine.

Paul.

[Bob38S]

Agree with the above but just a couple of extras,

try not to rout too deeply - leave just less than 1mm as a final cut - call it a "cleaner or shave" cut

check out for grain direction - it may be necessary to "back rout" aka "climb cutting" to get a better finish [all cautions re back routing of course]

ensure that your cutters are as sharp as you can get them - you tend to get more of the "problem" with blunt cutters

not too fast or slow when cutting - a little like Goldilocks - just right - no formula I'm aware of except trial and error. In other words don't start on the "real" piece if you suspect there could be a problem - have a go on some scrap first.

Just some thoughts.

[hcim]

I've been doing a lot with pine..., even with a very sharp (new) bit, you'll likely to meet those kind of problem. Try to rise the grain with water (many times I use very diluted water base sanding sealer ).

To make it perfectly smoth.... like other have said.... you'll need to do lots of sanding.
:doh: that's pine...., easy to work BUT difficult to finish (well not always BUT most of the time it happen) !!!

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Are you talking about a rough finish over what was an otherwise smooth surface, or are you talking about "tear-out?"

If the former, it may be caused by oily resins in the timber. Wiping down the timber immediately before applying the finish with something like acetone or metho (something which degrades oils and evaporates quickly without leaving a residue) can make a major difference to how well the finish can go on.