Sapele Side Table Completed

great looking top!

-- - Please help keep Lumberjocks an enjoyable escape by refusing to participate in political discussions. Simply spit out the bait and ignore the thread...

Wow … that is some nice material… where did you get it ?

Great posting GREG !

-- work from your heart and your spirit will live forever

Hi Greg;

The table looks great!

Excellent work!

Lee

-- by Lee A. Jesberger http://www.prowoodworkingtips.com http://www.ezee-feed.com

Very nice table, if I may make a suggestion about the finish….

I recently discovered the miracles of oil and sandpaper and I think that would help you here. I used to try and fill pores with finish, but what a long, tedious process. I noticed that even though you went to 2k grit and polishing, the pores were still open. Thats a lot of work that doesn’t pay off when the pores have not been filled, IMHO anyway.

Try this: take a piece of 220 grit with a backer block and spread some tung oil (fresh and thin, if the can is old, chances are it has become thicker) and sand with the grain to make a slurry. You will know when you are close when the block seems to want to stick to the surface because of the added surface area, not to be confused with the stickiness of drying oil.

Now you have two options, if your slurry is pretty even, you can let the oil dry then buff with some 0000 to prepare for your topcoats. If your slurry is mounded, you may have to rub it, but the problem here is that by rubbing while the slurry is wet, you can pull it out of the pores you just filled. You can use a plastic scraper to remove the excess maybe….If you must rub it, rub sideways to minimize the pulling.

This trick was a revelation for me, and my finishes have been glass smooth ever since, and I use less paper and finish, not to mention time. Hard to beat that….Give it a shot on some dark scrap, the results are more apparent on darker woods…..There is a difference between a high gloss, and an ‘even’ high gloss, and your projects are of the caliber to warrant the added work :)

-- Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -Carl Sagan

Thanks all, Dan, I love the hat.

Carver, I didn’t use oil in my rub out because I didn’t have the time to wait on it to dry. With the light wet sandings, rubbing compound and wax, I was able to get a pretty smooth finish in less than an hour. (after the last coat of shellac, that only too about 20 minutes to dry. My camera nor my photography skills aren’t the best. Also the lighting in my shop isn’t set up for pictures so the shot of the top looks a lot worse than it is. Thanks for the suggestion though, I may use it on a future project when i have more time.

-- Greg - Charles Town, WV

Well what can I say about this? Perfection personified in a finished product. Really nice work pal. But here is the real problem that I see. How do you top this one? Good luck.

-- Rich, Nevada,

Greg, It sure came out outstanding. Great job.

-- Thos. Angle

Greg -

Wow! Great looking table. I like the wood choice and the clean construction lines. Rich makes a great comment . . . how do you top this one! Wonderful photography by the way.

Carver – great suggestion . . . I will file this tip away for future use.

David

-- http://foldingrule.blogspot.com

Greg: The wood is beautiful. Nice job you did with it. I hope that Karen is real happy.

The top sure has some cool grain patterns.

See you in a week.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Sorry for stealing your post Greg but I wanted to show how I’ve done it and as Carver suggests.

Carver
I do something like you state, but I’ve used a random orbital sander and Danish Oil with some Japan Dryer and make a sanding dust mud pie I’ll use a putty knife to press it into the pores and then let it dry. Then I use a putty knive to cut it off the surface after it dries.

On this piece I couldn’t use any glue because of the contest rules so i actually filled in a split using the same material.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

The Ribbon Striped Sapele is gorgeous and your table design is great as well : )

-- You know you're getting old when you know the difference between you're (you are) and your (belonging to you) AND how to use them in a sentence .

That ribbon stripe mahogany/sapele is hard to photograph. I think they call it chatoyance. This is a great table!! Great job!!

-- Matt, Houston Texas