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Unfinished chair, sand, prepare and finish. Repair a chair glue joint. |
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Unfinished chairsemail question.....I recently purchased some pressed back oak chairs from a company called Wood-You. When I begin to stain these chairs am I going to go through the sanding process first even though the store sands its items down. Then in between the staining process do I need to resand the chairs again.Third question: Is tung oil a good finisher for the final coat or would polyurithane be better. reply.....You probably should figure on sanding again. Most unfinished furniture is machine sanded and has occasional skips. Even those who advertise hand sanding will sometimes leave skips. When you look at the amount of furniture they would have to sand by hand it would take an awful lot of time and would leave them with some pretty sore muscles. Where ever there is a skip the stain will soak in more and will make a darker blotch. A pair of cotton gardening gloves are real handy while you're sanding. Put on a glove and run your hand over the surface and you'll be able to feel any rough spots. Sand everything equally though, don't just sand the rough areas. Sand with about 180 grit sandpaper. Always sand in the same direction as the grain pattern in the wood. Don't sand after staining, where the wood grain is hardest the stain doesn't soak in very deep and you would probably sand the color off. Tung oil is a real good finish, especially if you haven't done much finishing. It's easy to apply and easy to repair if it gets scratched or marred. It isn't as hard as polyurethane, but is easier to maintain. If you go over the furniture once a year with 0000 steel wool and a good cleaner, then apply another coat of tung oil your furniture stays new looking all the time. You can find more information about it on our tung oil web page. Here is a good source to purchase tung oil. You can find more about unfinished furniture on our unfinished furniture web page Glue jointsWhen you repair a glue joint of any kind, whether it's a dowel joint, mortise and tenon, butt joint or any other type of glue joint never sand the old glue off. Many glues get hard and/or crystallize when they get old so if there is a spot of glue and any raw wood at all showing when you sand the glue you'll also sand the raw wood. The raw wood will sand away more than the old glue will, since it's softer and will make a looser fitting joint.Many glues are gap filling, which helps a loose fitting joint, but nothing will take the place of a good snug fitting wood to wood joint. A very sharp chisel or razor knife are handy tools for removing heavy glue. Care has to be taken to not remove any wood with a sharp tool, but it's a lot easier to control than sandpaper. Some times a little chunk of wood will be fastened tight to some old glue and will come away with the glue. If the wood can be removed from the glue it should be glued back where it came from, otherwise you should fill the hole it came from with wood filler. If the joint has been loose for a while the wood may be compressed from wiggling around. Compressed wood in a joint will usually have a shiny smooth appearance. You can expand the wood by pouring boiling water in the hole part of the joint and placing the solid piece in a container of boiled hot water just high enough to cover the part that goes into the joint. Be very careful not to get any finished portion in the boiled water. Let the hot water work for an hour or so, then let it dry completely. The joint should be much tighter fitting. Aliphatic resin glue (yellow woodworkers) is the best to use on joints, it'll fill any little imperfections to help make the joint tighter. Clamping glue joints is a must to have a strong joint. The clamp shouldn't be too tight or it'll squeeze all the glue out of the joint and make it weak, but too little pressure will leave the glue too thick, which will also make a weak joint. Air in a joint will compress when clamped and if there isn't enough pressure it will cause a piston action and cause the joint to open. Resist the temptation to use super glue or a hot glue gun to make joint repairs. Super glue isn't good on porous surfaces and hot melt glue is as flexible after it has been melted and solidifies as it is before it's melted, so it tends to make joints flexible rather than solid. Other pages from our newsletter March 15 2003: Refinish dining room set, Color and Mood, Quick fix a scratch or gouge Cabinet Hardware, Repaint Kitchen Cabinets, Make A Picture Frame Square | | Home | | Site map We're proud to be an affiliate of Blick Art Materials |
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