# making furniture out of SYP 2x4 -need finishing advice.



## Timberwolf323 (Feb 3, 2016)

I'm making a chest for a customer that has a limited budget and the only way I could make the numbers work is to mill down some scrap 2×4 I had in the shed.

Kinda feels like I'm polishing a turd here, putting groove and tenon joinery in It. but is the only way I could see to make it sturdy and inexpensive.

Anyone have experience with pine? What can I do to harden it some to resist denting? Is there a paint product I can use. ?

My first instict is to seal coat it with dewaxed shellac then prime and paint with behr latex eggshell (also from the shed) And maybe a few coats of 20/80 naphtha/poly with the hvlp.

I could always go oil based enamel but this crap takes forever to cure.

Now that I think of it … Wouldn't latex crack the polyurethane when it shrinks/expands with temperature change.


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## bruc101 (Sep 13, 2008)

How big is the chest you're going to make? We just finished a large syp project. 2 coats of pre cat primer, 3 coats pre cat paiint, and five coats of pre cat satin lacquer.

It should be hard enough with pre cat.

We keep several 100 feet of syp in stock all the time especially table leg blanks.


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## Tennessee (Jul 8, 2011)

There is nothing wrong with pine furniture. I know that 2X4's are fast growth soft wood, but so is a lot of cheaper pine furniture. My ex was in love with pine furniture - so I used to use a fingernail underneath an overhang to sort of test the hardness to try and get my money's worth. Most of it would give easily to a simple fingernail push into the pine.

I don't think there is much you can do to prevent denting over time. Any finish will help on the surface, but it's like putting a super thin piece of glass on top of a mattress. Looks hard till you hit it.

I think you are better to kind of go with the flow, and use maybe a poly of some sort that will have more of a tendency to flex with the wood instead of trying to hold it. Even an epoxy top would break if dented hard enough. No underneath support.


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## Timberwolf323 (Feb 3, 2016)

> How big is the chest you re going to make? We just finished a large syp project. 2 coats of pre cat primer, 3 coats pre cat paiint, and five coats of pre cat satin lacquer.
> 
> It should be hard enough with pre cat.
> 
> ...


It's 30" x 15" x 15". I batched out enough parts to make 3 so I could make two toy boxes for my kid.


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## dhazelton (Feb 11, 2012)

I would just hit any knots quick with Kilz, prime and one or two coats of enamel. I don't see the economy in using 2×4s and then spending an inordinate amount of time doing a multistep finishing process.


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## BobAnderton (Oct 5, 2010)

So, unorthodox answer here perhaps, but I'd use Varathane water based poly floor finish. It dries very hard and durable (meant for floors). It's water based so you can do a coat an hour or so. Brush cleans up with soap and water so it's easy to do like 5-6 coats, quick sanding between coats. It doesn't change the color of the wood so the original color will come through and not end up looking like stained pine.


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

I built a set of pine end tables and sprayed them with Spar Urethane (several heavy coats). It ambered the pine to a beautiful color and the Spar has enough flex that it shouldn't chip. # years of use and still looks new.


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## wormil (Nov 19, 2011)

Milk paint is all the rage now, with or without a topcoat. But if they can afford your work in pine but not in something else then I suspect your labor is too cheap.


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## klassenl (Feb 13, 2011)

Whenever I make something out of 2×4 I start with the knowledge that it will gather some character over time. The key is to be OK with that.


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## Timberwolf323 (Feb 3, 2016)

> I would just hit any knots quick with Kilz, prime and one or two coats of enamel. I don t see the economy in using 2×4s and then spending an inordinate amount of time doing a multistep finishing process.
> 
> - dhazelton


This is exactly what I did. But I primed the whole thing with killz. Second coat of rustoleum pro semi gloss enamel is drying now.



> Milk paint is all the rage now, with or without a topcoat. But if they can afford your work in pine but not in something else then I suspect your labor is too cheap.
> 
> - Rick M.


I'm not making much in the way of labor maybe 2$ an hour lol. But I'm making an additional chest at the same time for my daughter for a toy box. And what they had to spend ($175) pays for the materials to make hers a little nicer. I millled all the lumber at the same time. And used the same sheet of Baltic birch. So not a total loss. I have enough wood left over for a shop project also. So not a total loss.

My last posted project "the cherry and maple hope chest" was for these customers. They are family friends and I thought I was doing them a favor by selling it to them for $300. But they don't want to pay that. So….. Deposit and contract in hand.They get the cheap version and I get to sell the other one for much more.


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## Timberwolf323 (Feb 3, 2016)

Edit. "Friends".


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## wormil (Nov 19, 2011)

You are getting experience and that's worth something. Another nice thing about milk paint is it is easy to distress, the more you distress it the less you have to worry about dings and dents down the road. But I agree with klassenl, that I expect 2×4 furniture to acquire character over time.


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## bandit571 (Jan 20, 2011)

Witch's Brew…


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