Mineral Oil or Poly finish for this nursery light box

Save the mineral oil for cutting boards.

Use shellac and be done with it. It’s the most natural and safest finishing product we use. Works great with soft woods like pine. No need for anything else.

-- jay, www.allaboutastro.com

BTW, really cool project…well done!

-- jay, www.allaboutastro.com

Nice project. I’d go with poly or shellac. Either should be fine.

-- There is nothing like the sound of a well tuned hand plane. - http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com (timetestedtools at hotmail dot c0m)

I should note…besides wood stain. This will be my first attempt at finishing wood…
Poly and Shellac seem like they would be easy to mess up but I could be wrong.
Mineral oil sounds like it is pretty simple.

Eddie…mineral oil doesn’t dry and must be replenished on occasion. It’s “oily.” It provides no real protection.

Any finish is safe once fully cured. Poly will be fine…I’d recommend a wipe-on version …which is the same as thinning the regular stuff.

Shellac is about the easiest finish to apply. I’d recommend the dewaxed Zinsser Sealcoat shellac at the big box store. You can even tint it with dyes.

Be careful with stain on pine. It will blotch. I’d consider keeping it natural…film finish only. Oil will even blotch pine. In fact, I think pine with blotch if you look at it funny.

-- jay, www.allaboutastro.com

Thanks for the responses,
I was not planning on staining it at all, just a clear finish.

I assumed because it likely will not be moved/handled much that the mineral oil would not need to be replenished and the box would not need any real protection from the finish.

I will have to check into what type of Poly it is that I have at home already (it is in a can and seems really thin, i think it mentioned using a foam brush to apply) I am trying to keep this project as cheap as possible.

So far I have sanded it down using 150grit and plan to use at least 220grit before I finish…is that enough?

Zinsser Sealcoat shellac – brush, spray or wipe. It’s the easiest finish going.

-- Sam Hamory - The project is never finished until its "finished"!

use the poly you have. If the instruction recommend a foam brush its probably a brush on poly. You can use it as is, or thin it. Thinning it reduces the probability of runs but you’ll need added coats to get to a desired finish. Its all good. :-)

-- There is nothing like the sound of a well tuned hand plane. - http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com (timetestedtools at hotmail dot c0m)

As Don said, the poly you have will work. People prefer the “wipe-on” poly because brushes cause runs and thicker viscosities tend not to level as much (leaving visible brush strokes). Wiping on is easy…it just goes on in very thin coats. Diluting your existing poly with perhaps 50% mineral spirits will give you “wipe-on” poly.

Still, I prefer the shellac, especially if the piece will just sit on a shelf. Shellac dries very fast so that you can add multiple coats at a very quick rate.

As for sanding the wood, anything in the 120 to 220 range is fine. Once the first coat of finish is on, lightly scuff sand with a fine grit if using poly in order to provide a mechanical bond for subsequent coats. With shellac, I use only 3M abrasive pads or 0000 steel wood to catch any dust nits, which don’t happen all that often because the shellac dries so fast. Either way, sanding between coats at progressively finer grits can give you the smoothness or sheen that you might want.

As always, experiment on scrap wood first.

-- jay, www.allaboutastro.com

Box joints. Atta boy!

-- "Patience is the mother of joy." -W. Logan

Cool project. Nice box joints. Shellac has become my favorite finish as it is too easy. If you’ve never brushed it just be sure not to overbrush and sand lightly between coats. 3 coats should be enough and can be done in one day. Personally, I can’t see any difference in appearance between Seal Coat and Regular Zinsser shellac. Oh yeah, regardless of how you apply it, I would thin it with denatured alcohol.

-- " I'll try to be nicer, if you'll try to be smarter" gfadvm

It’s a nice box, so don’t screw it up with goofy combinations of different stuff. All it needs is a couple coats of waterborne poly to let your workmanship shine.

-- Clint Searl.............We deserve what we tolerate