Finishing wood bases

[docbob52]

After sanding the wood bases is it best to glue them up before staining and finishing them?

[Zimmer64]

I would even suggest to glue them before sanding. Some glue always comes back out and leaves staines that require sanding before staining.

Best

Michael

[sl-15]

i would stain them after you glue them together. you need to use stainable glue (from elmers for example). but you still want to avoid getting any glue on the wood were it should not be because these spots will  typically not take stain very well. after you glued the base together it is probably necessary to sand the base again around the edges to get rid of glue residue and to smooth out any minor misalignment. the stainable glue has wood particles in it and it takes stain to a certain degree. so if there is a little glue exposed at the edges it will be not as visible as if taking regular glue. let me know if you have more questions. good luck, stefan

[ssssly]

Glue everything together before sanding and staining.

You will want to block sand, then stain, two or three times to get a nice even color.

Then incrementally sand to 320. And it will be ready for whatever top coat you want.

Use about a quarter of the glue you think you need.

I use a foam brush. Put some glue in a paper cup and dip the brush in. Then wipe off almost all the glue. Then apply the thinnest coat you possibly can to the actual wood working from the center out. If you get some on the exterior wood, wipe it off with a damp paper towel immediately.

You need a remarkably small amount of glue to attach wood to itself. The bond of the glue is actually stronger than the wood.

This will help you keep glue off things that are going to be stained. And if you do get a little outside the lines. Since you didn't glop glue all over the wood, it will only be on the surface instead of sunk deep into the wood. Making it easy to sand out, so yo can get a nice even finish.

[docbob52]

Thanks so much fo

R the advise , will do.

[grausch]

I know this is an older thread, but thought I would post here to keep all the relevant info in the same spot.

Here is also a link to my original gallery thread for some background info: http://bottlehead.com/smf/index.php?topic=6597.0

Crack: For the Crack, I wanted to get the base as dark as possible. I used the biopin all-in-one as per my gallery post. Used a brush and applied some pretty thick coats while not wiping away any excess. Can't remember exactly, but I believe I applied 3 coats in total with 240 grit sanding in-between. While I was happy with the colour, I was not happy with some of the brush-marks still visible.

I decided to redo the base, and sanded it down with some 80 grit. It still kept some of the stain in some spots, but generally looked almost the same as originally received. I needed to sand up all the way back to 240 grit to remove some of the light scratches left by the 80 grit. Once those were out, used a damp paper towel and cleaned off all the wood dust. Left the base for probably a month and started finishing it over the weekend. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the base in its sanded-down state.

Stereomour: Since I needed to sand out scratches with the 80 grit, I only sanded this with 240 grit. This time round, the wood dust was just sprayed off with compressed air.

For the finishing of both of the bases, I used the biopin all-in-one, but based on JamieMcC advise on head-fi, I thinned it with some oil. Use cold-pressed linseed oil which will take forever to polymerize, but I don't mind and have time to wait. I used a ratio of 25% biopin, 75% linseed oil. Gave it a good shake to mix, and need to do this often as the two don't mix that nicely. This time round, I applied a pretty thin layer of the mixed finish, wiped off all of the excess almost immediately and let dry.

Here, the Crack just absorbed the finished gorgeously. It is a brown-gold colour and the grain just pops. This is after one layer, and I really like the direction it is going. The Stereomour on the other hand is not absorbing the finish that well. Best description I have is that it only absorbed the oil and not the varnish. It has turned into a light-gold colour, but the grain does not pop in the same way as with the Crack.

I plan to use the remainder of my mix and apply a further 2-3 coats to each base with either sanding or using some steel wool in between coats. Then I will make another mix of 50% biopin / 50% linseed oil, apply 2-3 coats. Another mix of 75% biopin / 25% oil, apply 2-3 coats. At this point I plan to evaluate whether 2 - 3 100% biopin coats are needed.

Now the questions I have relating to the finishing are:

• With the Crack, I am very happy with the results. Since the linseed oil can take quite long to polymerize, would I be better off using steel wool between coats, or should I give it a week or two to dry, and then just sand lightly with 240 grit between coats?
• With the Stereomour, it gets a bit tricky. Did the harsh sanding and cleaning with the damp cloth allow the Crack to just absorb the mixed finish that much better? At this point, should I just sand down the base aggressively and start over? Or should I continue with the current process and hope that it will absorb the finish better as the % oil in the mix declines? Or lastly, just slap on some thick layers of biopin, give it a month to dry, sand it down aggressively and start the process over? The latter would be roughly the same process as used on the Crack base.
  

Any advice would be appreciated.

Edit:

Added photos for visual reference. Looks like the Stereomour took on a little more colour overnight, but there is still a pronounced difference

Crack base
(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FH8RPsek.jpg&hash=1b0ecb29d7cec79576e60d335d7168411d1eeec2)

Stereomour base
(https://forum.bottlehead.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FaeKZiLB.jpg&hash=3e3f79a4459a0c35d8c95cb561b7d3766086d7a5)