Monthly Archive for November, 2010

The end of the autumn (leaf, that is)

Published on November 23, 2010 in Finishing and Woodturning. Closed Tags: , .

Some of you’ve wondered if I went to sleep or moved away. It’s been days between posts. But actually I’m working with a little start-up, planning their marketing. And, like all new companies, it takes a lot of time. Plus, the holidays are starting to take their toll in tasks.

this spot of end grain created some finishing challenges.

Anyway… I sprayed several coats of amber shellac on the leaf plate, but the blotch in the photo, where a branch passed through the plane of the plate, absorbed finish unevenly. The result was a dull spot. Fortunately, since I used a shellac finish, the solution was ready at hand—French polish.

French polish was probably the first gloss finish, before the age of sandpaper. It’s achieved by applying lots (and lots) of super-thin coats of shellac to a piece. It’s very labor-intensive, so it’s rarely used anymore, but it’s a quick solution to problems such as this.

I put three cotton balls in the middle of a small, lint-free, cotton rag. I poured a little clear shellac into them, then twisted the rag tightly around them to make up a “rubber”. I took care that the bottom was smooth, without wrinkles. Then, I put a drop of oil on the bottom of the rubber, which was just damp with shellac.

Here’s the leaf plate wearing its final finish.

Now, using a motion like an airplane landing and taking off again, I “touched down” on the spot and glided off again, let it dry for a moment, then did it again and again (and a lot more). Each time, the spot got a little glossier. Finally, the sheen matched that of the surrounding area, and I could let things dry for several days.

Coming back to the piece once it was thoroughly dry, I did my favorite final rubout. I rubbed the piece with 0000 steel wool, using paste wax as a lubricant. I let the wax harden for half an hour or so, then buffed the surfaces to an even, satin sheen. Now the plate’s on the shelf, ready to be a Christmas gift.

The colors of autumn

Published on November 7, 2010 in Finishing. 9 Comments Tags: , .

Airbrushing with transparent acrylic paints.

Raw wood doesn’t look much like autumn, and I deliberately chose birch for this project to provide a neutral canvas. I’d previously dyed the wood with yellow water-based dye, and now it was time to add the subtle color gradations of falling leaves.

I wanted the grain and woodburning to show, so I chose transparent acrylic airbrush paints. I could build them up in layers to get the color effect I wanted, and an airbrush would let me place the colors precisely.

Airbrushing in process

I mixed each round of color, then diluted it 50% with airbrush diluting medium so I could build layers more slowly. I began spraying green around the edges of the leaf, overlaid with redder and browner tones toward the center. I used the original photo of the maple leaf to guide me, but tried to capture its feel rather than copy it slavishly (which I couldn’t have done). The photo shows the leaf partway through this process.

Amber shellac—the next stage

When I was done airbrushing the leaf had lots of color, but it looked a bit garish. It needed mellowing, and my favorite solution in situations such as this is amber shellac. I cut Zinsser’s amber shellac 50% with BT&C’s excellent anhydrous alcohol (more about this in a future post), then sprayed seven coats with the detail gun you see in the picture. The result was a deep, mellow amber cast that blended the airbrush colors and looked like autumn.

But the finish wasn’t done yet. That pesky knot with its uneven gloss will be dealt with next post.

Super deal on router lifts

Published on November 3, 2010 in website/blog. 7 Comments

If you’re still raising and lowering the router in your router table manually, help may be “at hand”, as it were. Woodpeckers is discontinuing their original Precision Router Lift, and they’ve cut the price dramatically, from $330 to $200, to clear the old inventory.

This is a fine router lift, sturdy and well-designed. Of course, another and perhaps better product is pushing this one out of the warehouses, but this is a great opportunity if you’ve been thinking about a router lift to add precision to your router table.

Just cut a rectangle in your tabletop big enough for the aluminum top plate, drop in this lift, and you can start adjusting your router bit height in .001″ increments. I know that sounds like overkill for woodworking, and for many uses it is. But it’s sure nice to be able to sneak up on a kiss fit with a joint, or to change your height setting and be able to return to the previous one within such tight tolerances. Check it out at the above link.