Sanding
Sunday 8/17
Tools: Makita Random Orbital Sander with 80 grit then 220 grit Sandpaper.
Before any work was done the table was in poor condition. There were multiple colors of paint splattered on the table, missing polyurethane, and worn marks everywhere.
To get started I had to first take the table apart. To take the legs off I had to remove some wood plugs. I took off the wood plugs by drilling into them, and then chiseling around the drill hole with a flathead screwdriver pulling out the wood chips with pliers until the plugs either broke out or popped out.
I got the legs off of the table and put it on the saw horses. I initially tried sanding down the table with the random orbital with 220 grit sandpaper because I had no clue what i was doing, it sort of worked. It was very patchy.
Staining
Tools: Minwax Dark Walnut stain, rags
The old guy at Ace said that we did not need to remove all the stain before reapplying, so we started staining after the 220 patch job. We put on the first big heavy coat of stain, the stain was nice and dark. About 30 mins after the first thing of stain dried we put on another coat of stain again in big gloppy moves.
The next day the table was pretty sticky and very splotchy. There were sander marks in the table and the colors were totally off. Below is a picture of a different panel. It shows the splotchiness of the oak without the wood conditioner. The other panel actually looked a lot worse than this.
Pre-Stain and Stain
Sunday 8/23
tools: Minwax oil based pre-stain, rags
After investigating how to properly sand, we decided to start over. Back to the hardware store!
We resanded one of the panels with 80 grit paper. After resanding we also applied wood conditioner. The stain was much more even throughout the whole panel even around the edges. Notably, it was also not sticky. This time we followed instructions on the can for staining.
The process for pre-stain is:
make sure the pre-stain is oil based if you're using oil based stain, I match the brands too.
Apply pre-stain over the whole surface with rag
Let pre-stain penetrate for 15 minutes, wipe-off excess. I waited 45 minutes after pre-stain before staining, but only 15 minutes before wiping excess.
Applying stain, the process is:
apply the stain liberally to the surface not worrying about strokes, or areas where there is more stain
After 10-15 minutes, wipe off all of the excess stain so the surface feels almost dry to the touch.
Note here that the stain color is slightly lighter when you apply the wood conditioner first. So maybe go one shade darker stain than you intend for the finished product when applying the pre-stain.
Although the pre-stain got rid of the splotchiness, the area on the right side of the table got a tiny bit wet because it was misting for a moment. It left rain drop marks! You can see the dark splotches on the left side of the table are areas that were affected by rain. I re-sanded just those areas of the table that were affected and pre-stained and stained them again.
I also got rid of the scratch marks on the left side of the table by re-sanding. After that I applied a new layer of conditioner, and then two more coats of stain. It took out the rain marks and fixed the sander scratches as well. So, the point is, if there is one area that is negatively affected you can probably repair it by sanding down to bare wood and starting the process over without having to resand the whole thing.
Saturday 8/24
Moving Day!
Sunday 8/25
I sanded the nice panel again with the random orbital sander that had not been pre-stained so the colors matched and to remove splotchiness. To do one panel took a couple of hours. This is when I realized I should have been using a belt sander rather than a random orbital. It would have gone 100 times faster. Anyways, I used 80 grain and then 220 grain sandpaper over the entire surface. I drew marks with the white pen on the table before doing the 220 sanding. Although it seemed like all the marks were gone, I noticed them in really bright light this morning, meaning that I didn't get them all sanded off. After that I did a coat of the pre-stain.
Finishing Coat
Monday 8/26
Tools: Satin Minwax Polyurethane, Rags.
I applied Satin Minwax Polyurethane (I initially bought polyacrilic, but apparently it dries really fast, and can create a milky white finish on dark wood. I think its for cheap and quick finishes.)
Steps to varnish (colloquial term for finishing products):
Buy a nice finishing brush (If its oil based varnish, you need an animal hair brush.)
Pour the varnish into red bucket thing, make sure you do not pour quickly. Do not shake can, stir slowly to get the gloop off the bottom. Anything done too fast will create bubbles in the final product.
Begin applying varnish
The first coat went well. I tried to put it on really lightly. I waited 4-6 hours between coats. After the first coat I sanded again with 220 grit paper, then vacuumed, and wiped the table down with a microfiber cloth. After five hours the table was still a little sticky, and then sanding didn't seem like it did anything. Before the second coat, I tried to clean my brush. I cleaned the brush by:
Soaking in about 2 in of mineral spirits for a minute or so, moving the brush around
Pour out brown spirits and fill cup with 2 in of new spirits
Stir brush around liquid should be clear
Pour out Fill cup with dish soap and water Stir around, work soap through brush
Rinse brush, and dump out.
Dry
After 6 hours I applied a second coat of polyurethane, notably, the varnish was a little frothy, I fear that there may have been soap left on brush when I applied the second coat. I can't really tell if there are bubbles in the second coat, but something seemed slightly off with second coat. This morning I also noticed the white marks that I made on the nice panel that I didn't fully get out of the table. They were marks used to make sure i had sanded the entire surface. Apparently I hadn't, but they were hardly noticeable.
Finished product!
