Hi Lumberjocks,
I'm working on finishing a mostly maple dining table with some walnut trim and am having some serious issues on finishing. I was planning on just using General Finishes High Performance water based top coat. I've used it before and liked it but never on something this big/wide.
Here's the situation as it stands now:
Leaves, breadboard ends, and underside and aprons are all finished with GF HP Water based topcoat and I'm happy with them. I finished the top with the same thing but couldn't get a smooth enough finish without tons of brush lines, etc. Tried thinning it per recommendations on website but still no luck.
I sanded it all off (so I thought) and went all the way up to 320 in prep for finishing it again, this time with several coats of danish oil, wet sanding with coats 2-3, and then a few wipe on poly after a few days of curing, then final buffing with wax.
After I got the first coat of danish oil on and was wiping it dry, I realized that maybe I hadn't gotten all of the GF HP finish off of the top, as there was some uneven absorption. I was not thrilled. I tried wiping off with mineral spirits ASAP and that got some of the Danish Oil off. I let it sit overnight. This morning, I scraped and sanded until I got to raw wood again (so I thought). Sanded from 80-320 again. Tack clothed and blew off dust and went for another go at the DO/wipe on poly plan. Got the first coat of DO on and then went to wipe it off and AGAIN, inconsistencies. The places that looked best were the ones where I had done the most scraping. Even one spot that upon closer inspection, had a little dip in it from sanding and that's where the oil looked best. Most of the wood looked dull still and the grain hadn't popped, which leads me to believe there was still the GF HP stuff on the wood. I was pretty certain I had gotten down to raw wood, but maybe not!
Advice? Do I need to wait a day for the DO to fully dry, then sand yet again down to 80-320? Am I screwed? I want it all to look like the spots where the grain popped. Should be fairly obvious in the pictures.
HELP!
I'm working on finishing a mostly maple dining table with some walnut trim and am having some serious issues on finishing. I was planning on just using General Finishes High Performance water based top coat. I've used it before and liked it but never on something this big/wide.
Here's the situation as it stands now:
Leaves, breadboard ends, and underside and aprons are all finished with GF HP Water based topcoat and I'm happy with them. I finished the top with the same thing but couldn't get a smooth enough finish without tons of brush lines, etc. Tried thinning it per recommendations on website but still no luck.
I sanded it all off (so I thought) and went all the way up to 320 in prep for finishing it again, this time with several coats of danish oil, wet sanding with coats 2-3, and then a few wipe on poly after a few days of curing, then final buffing with wax.
After I got the first coat of danish oil on and was wiping it dry, I realized that maybe I hadn't gotten all of the GF HP finish off of the top, as there was some uneven absorption. I was not thrilled. I tried wiping off with mineral spirits ASAP and that got some of the Danish Oil off. I let it sit overnight. This morning, I scraped and sanded until I got to raw wood again (so I thought). Sanded from 80-320 again. Tack clothed and blew off dust and went for another go at the DO/wipe on poly plan. Got the first coat of DO on and then went to wipe it off and AGAIN, inconsistencies. The places that looked best were the ones where I had done the most scraping. Even one spot that upon closer inspection, had a little dip in it from sanding and that's where the oil looked best. Most of the wood looked dull still and the grain hadn't popped, which leads me to believe there was still the GF HP stuff on the wood. I was pretty certain I had gotten down to raw wood, but maybe not!
Advice? Do I need to wait a day for the DO to fully dry, then sand yet again down to 80-320? Am I screwed? I want it all to look like the spots where the grain popped. Should be fairly obvious in the pictures.
HELP!