Steve Ramsey's chess board #9: Trials and tribulations

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I can’t help myself, I just keep messing up… The Trials and tribulations of being an amateur. Started sanding yesterday

Since I did not fille the wood pores (did not find a suitable product in our hardware stores) the laquer was all over the places in ridges and valleys and to get it all even I should have put atleast 7 more coats on, then I could confortably sand it down to totally flat.

But after first 20 minutes of handsanding

I went to 400 grit OS.

And that didn’t work out quite as I wanted either, the sandpaper was clogging up so much, had to change it every few minutes, really need to get my hands on a wet ROS paper.

Of course, at this point I should realize that I have sanded off a lot of lacquer and I should be considering different options already…But that is not what I do…. against all of your guys better judgement, what do I do?

That is correct, I switch to 320 ROS….Of course, at this point with brand new ROS 320 paper I make a mistake.

At this point I am just like @£$€!!!!! this POS, BS project… and I go to figuring out another option. Since the base laquer was a semi-gloss I run to the shop, grab a can of high gloss spray on lacquer, I figure I can coat it with that and see what happens, since the base is very flat now it might cover it up nicely, but you never know. (This is where I should have started by the way, but being an amateur I did not ask specifically for spray on lacquer before I started this project, I went with a brush on version)

I come back form the shop, cover that little piece with the brush on lacquer, leave it to dry and go to play bandminton to vent off some of the steam. Return 3 hours later, put handles on my drawers and do a test piece with the spray on laquer – on just wood it works well, so if it doesn’t bring the top on to shine with the current base coat of semigloss lacquer I will have the option to sand the top all down to wood and do a new build up with spray on. The big advantage is that it dries in like 15 minutes, so I can still deliver the piece this Satruday or Sunday.

Boy do I love to learn new things but I hate that I need to learn by making mistakes, especially when I make these mistakes by specifically going against your guys expertiese.

Anyhow, today when I get back home I will start coating the top and lining the drawers with felt, I am determined to win, even if that does mean that I need to sand the top down to bare wood and start from scratch. I have put in too much work to quit now. And I need to start work on my kitchen next week. I got a lot ofprojects coming up, can’t afford to push the project for another week.

Source: LumberJocks.com

Steve Ramsey's chess board #9: Trials and tribulations