Newbie finishing advice wanted

[wixy]

I am currently building a speaker, and when finished I want to stain and varnish it to as high a quality standard as I can. The timber is marine ply, as shown in this pic:



I've just bought myself a Metabo SXE450DUO random orbital sander for the sanding work.

The advice i'm after, being a complete newbie to this, is:

• What sandpaper grits should I use, both before applying the finish and between coats?
• What type of stains and varnishes are recommended?
• What type of brush to use, and what other equipment if anything is needed?
• I was thinking of using a jarrah stain. Would this look good with this colour timber? If not, any other suggestions for a good matching stain?
• Any other tips or advice?

Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks!

[jerryc]

Wixy,
Don't want to put you off but how long is a piece of string.
You say you want a high quality finish but what sort of abuse, if any is it likely to suffer? Is it likely it will have wine glasses stood on it? Do you want a semi gloss or full gloss. Should it be hard wearing or easily repairable? I could go on.

What finish is used is linked to your life style and to your ability.

There are many people here to advise you if we know what you want.

Jerry

Everyone is entitled to my opinion

[wixy]

Thanks Jerry. I guess it doesn't need to be hard wearing as it wouldnt suffer any abuse at all, but i'd just like it to look good.

[Harry72]

1st thing you'll need to grain fill the ply too get a nice flat surface, get some "timbermate" or similar powdered wood filler(waterbased) then some form of water dye(ubeaut dyes are brilliant) or cement colouring oxide to tint the colour too what you want.
Mix up a small batch about the consistency of pancake batter(Hmmm pancakes!)using a very small amount of dye/oxide grab a scrap piece of the ply and rub in the mix with a rag, follow along the grain 1st putting on a good coat, the wipe the excess off across the grain. Once fully dry sand the surface back with some 240g paper then some 320g.
Wipe some turps across the surface and look along the surface with strong light shinning on it, this'll show up the surface to see if its smooth.
You may need to repeat the process to completely fill the grain. Once achieved sand the surface into the fine grits starting at 400 going onto 800~1500g

Once satisfied apply a thin finish like danish oil or you could shellac it, get Ubeauts finishing bible for instructions on how to use these finishes.

[jerryc]

Wixy,

I am a shellac nut. Use it for a lot of things. Read through the thread "Shellac, tell me all you know". You've put in the work, the speaker cabinets look good, so don't spoil it as many do with a poor quality brush and a tin of polyurethane. Even polyurethane which is not a favourite of mine, can produce a reasonable finish if applied well.

Jerry

Everyone is entitled to my opinion

[jerryc]

wixy,

Hope you've progressed in finding the right finish. Help is here if you need it. Just ask questions. there's no such thing as a stupid question as we all have to learn.

Jerry

Everyone is entitled to my opinion

[wixy]

Thanks for the advice guys!

[old_picker]

start by sanding 180, 240, 320, 400
then use sanding sealer [water or oil base], a couple good coats and sand flat with 400 till no shiny bits are left

see how the grain looks and if it is filled ok start with your final coats
if not use more sanding sealer or of pretty open grain still then use timbermate - pancake batter thickness is good - just mix water with ur timbermate and paint it on thick - let start to go off a bit and start wiping it off across the grain with a credit card ot some use a bit of hessian or burlap

let dry and sand with 400 - once ur grain is filled start with the topcoats of polyurethane either water or oil base. a couple thin even coats then flatten with 600 wet n dry and water with a little soap in. make sure you gt all the shiny bits out a couple more coats then sand flat with 800 and if you got no sandthroughs got 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000, 2500,

by this time you will have a dull shine - then swirl remover and buff out hard - i like meguiers - finish with wet look car polish again meguires

you will have a deep mirror shine and it will look a million bucks - a lotta work but worth the effort

a quicker finish is sand to 400 splash on a coat of poly sand back again and one more coat of poly and rub it back hard with 000 then 0000 steel wool and hit it with some gillies carnauba wax polish and buff to a medium shine

wont be as good but pretty good for the time and effort

if its your first finishing job dont complicate it with stains

keep the progress pics a coming

[munruben]

Thanks for the advice guys!

How about a pic when you have finished the project.

[jerryc]

Wixy,

Haven't established what finish you want to apply, level of sheen i.e gloss or satin. Whether you want a mirror finish or a finish which shows some grain. All of these will have a bearing on your choice.

In general marine ply has a fairly tight veneer and therefore my choice would be not to sand too much in the early stages. I normally go only to 180 grit before applying a sanding sealer. After applying sanding sealer you can then go to the finer grits. Normally, as I have said, I rarely go past shellac and use a rubber. When properly applied it can produce a very fine finish without recourse to long periods of sanding, an action that can generate dust in the workshop which then in turn means more sanding.
Wongo and I discussed the use of a wipe on finish in a recent thread. It's a finish used by Sam Maloof and gives a real "hand rubbed" look. You can make the mix using polyurethane, turps and boiled linseed oil in roughly equal quantities, or as I discussed in the thread substitute spar varnish for the polyurethane. The wipe on method is very similar to the rubber application of shellac and has the advantage of being very easy to apply since it's not brushed on, is quick drying and therefore is very useful in the normal workshop where dust nibs can be a problem.
Best thing, as I have said is to take lots of advice, ask questions and try everything first on a piece of scrap or failing that in an inconspicuous part of your project,for example the inside of the cabinet.

Jerry


Everyone is entitled to my opinion

[jerryc]

wixy,

The Wongo thread was "searching for a foolproof finis" Sorry I'm not the greatest computer nerd and so can't put those flashy go to bits in,but it's only a few threads back.

Jerry

Everyone is entitled to my opinion

[wixy]

How about a pic when you have finished the project.

Finished this project a while ago but here's a pic.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I ended up going with a reasonably quick approach, sanding from 120 - 180 - 240 - 320 - 400 grit. I then applyed sanding sealer, sanded again with 400 grit, applied a single coat of cabots jarrah and then a couple of coats of cabots danish oil, sanding lightly between coats.

One thing I did notice though was that if I look at the finish up close, in some places there a few shiny spots of danish oil. I guess i didn't rub it in quite well enough, but lesson learnt.