Just for Fun... #5: Strong to the finish

There hasn’t been a lot to report on this lately. We’re talking finishing here and it’s pretty droll stuff.
If you recall we left off here
Now my Dad had a great suggestion regarding the prominent “stripes” on the lid, which are, of course, merely leftover stain in the hollows of the contour. He said, “You ought to paint them. Paint them black. Shiny black..”
And so I did
I actually painted them again the following morning after this. The first coat just didn’t have the “gleam” I was looking for. After that dried, I began applying clear gloss polyurethane.
I’m sure there’s probably about the same number of ways of doing this, as there are people inclined to do it, but I’ve had pretty good luck with spray-on for small applications like this. This part of the story is a little bass ackwards but, if you’ll bear with me, all will become clear…
I began by making an aluminum foil pan and placed the box in the middle on the floor.
Beginning with the bottom side, I spray a light coat from one direction, then the opposite direction, then alternate the two side directions and then between those four…In other words, from the north, then the south, east, and west, and then from SE, NW, NE, and finally from the SW. This, as I say, is a light coat, a kind of soaking-in type of thing. I set the kitchen timer for 20 minutes and when it goes off I repeat the same light coat again…20 timed minutes after that, I do it one last time, only a heavier application. No sanding involved between coats. I checked it one last time before going to bed that night and was satisfied…
Now for the backwards part. The original idea for the paint pan came from actual pans, restaurant sheet pans to be exact. I used to have 4-5 of them but somehow they didn’t make the move with me 11 years ago. When I apply this it stinks up the apartment for days, so I resolved to ask at work, to see whether they’d let me take one of their older beat-up ones home. They did and I did, and I finally got back to my original procedure!
Yeah, Baby!! Cooking with gas now!! The advantage here is that I can do it on the porch and then move the whole procedure anywhere. Here I’ve got it on the gas on gas stove. There’s no heating necessary this time of year, but the pilot inside keeps it just warm enough to help with the drying…
When I first used a “Paint Pan” in this fashion, I made a startling discovery. The lip of the pan stops the over spray almost dead in its tracks! I don’t know where it goes, probably back in my face, but hardly anywhere else…Maybe this is common knowledge, but it wasn’t to me…
Like I said, droll stuff…
Anyway, spent the last few days doing the four sides
I’m slathering it on pretty heavy, as you can see. I did the last side an hour or two ago and should be able to do the top tonight…There’s still a little work to be done inside but this will be a project post next time you see it…
If anybody actually read this, Thanks, and I hope you had as much fun as I did, both in the making and the sharing. If anybody has questions, comments, or criticism, fire away!
As an aside, I’m headed up to our State Capitol Concord for a few days. There’s a rumor that there is a craft shop up there that is selling small wooden boxes for $450 a pop! This I gotta see!!! :)

-- Mike in Manchester, NH---Unpleasant tasks are simply worthy challenges to improve skills.