dining room side table

grab yourself a good quality brush andprepare to -- microjig, maker of the gripper. work safer. work smarter. --you'll probably want to protect most of your projects you make with a finish. butapplying a wood finish doesn't have to be complicated. let's look at the basicsto make things even easier on you. some projects may not require any finish atall. for example there's no huge benefit to applying a finish to shop projects. astorage or tool cabinets or tables or work benches. of course if you have a lotof visitors to your shop and you'd like to show off a beautiful workspace, thenby all means, spruce up your shop fixtures. i like to paint some of my shopcabinets because the bright colors just

make me happy and brighten up my mood. speaking of which, i believe paint is the strongest, most durable, most practical,easiest to apply, finish there is. if it's long-term durability you want, go withpaint. i mean really, we use paint on our houses for a reason, because they'resubjected to all kinds of harsh weather conditions. plus the choice of colors isunlimited. but of course the main drawback to paint is that it hides thewood and from my own experience on this show, that tends to make some peoplecranky. there are lots of great-looking examples of painted furniture, and itreally shouldn't be discounted as an option. but for this video i'm only goingto focus on clear protective topcoat.

there are two main reasons to applyfinish to wood projects. first, wood finishes help to protect wood fromscratches, moisture damage, spills, stains, and uv damage from sunlight. secondly, afinish will make wood look great. it's very rewarding to watch the color andgrain pop as soon as you apply a finish. plus a nicely finished piece is verytactile and it just feels nice no matter what type of finish you use. it'simportant to sand your project first. i usually start with a 120 grit sandpaperand then move up to a 220 grit sandpaper and istop there. there's rarely any reason to sand to any finer grit because thesmooth feel of your surfaces will come

from the finish that you apply aftersanding. make sure you remove all of the sawdust from your project. dust particlesare the bane of a good finish. i like to vacuum off the surfaces then wipe themoff with a tack cloth then with a clean lint-free cloth like an old t-shirt. iwipe everything down with mineral spirits or paint center and this willalso highlight any dents that are in the wood or any dried glue you may havemissed. plus it gives you a quick preview of what the wood will look like onceit's finished. for lots more information on sanding watch this basic video overhere. if you go to a home center or hardware store it's easy to beoverwhelmed with choices. there are a lot

of ways you could finish wood. there areentire books on the subject of finishing. in this video i'm only going to discussa few of the most common finishes that hobbyists might want to use. there aretwo main kinds of finish. first, a layered finish. one that sticks to the surface ofthe wood, kind of like paint does. this includes polyurethane, lacquer, and othervarnishes. and secondly, an oil finish, one that penetrates into the grain of thewood such as linseed oil or tung oil. in general, a layered finish will offer alot more protection to the wood, but it can look a little artificial or in somecases kind of plastic-y. oil finishes on the other hand, are kind of earthier.the wood looks great and more natural

but they don't offer nearly as muchprotection. polyurethane is probably the most popular finish today. the biggestdrawback is that it can be very time consuming to apply. to get a good finishyou need to apply at least three coats which realistically might take threedays. applying any finish with a brush is different than painting. the goal isto avoid swiping back and forth and creating streaks or leaving behind airbubbles. it's a good idea to pour your finish into a separate container to userather than straight out of the can. this will help prevent contaminatingyour main supply. i like to start by conditioning my brush and dipping it inmineral spirits and soaking the bristles.

dip the brush into the finish all theway up to the ferrule and let it soak up as much as it can. lightly press the tipagainst the can to remove any excess that might drip. a good quality brushshould hold quite a bit of finish. start at one edge of the wood and try to applythe finish in one long stroke along the entire length of the board, pressing downmore and more on the brush as you get to the end, letting it release the finish the entire way. fill the brush up again and applymore slightly overlapping the first stroke. mostly avoid brushing back andforth as if you were painting a fence. use long steady strokes trying to letthe finish flow as evenly as possible

brush slowly and don't stop to take abreak until the entire surface is completely covered. if you find thatyou've missed a spot, skip it. just leave it for the next coat.if you try to dab in a patch it can make it look worse. also it's a good idea tostart with the edges and vertical surfaces of a project, then finish upwith the top surface. check the back of the can to see how much time you need tolet it dry between coats. it could be 5 hours or more for an oil-basedpolyurethane and less time for water-based. dry times will also differbased on temperature and humidity. once each coat is dry it should be lightlysanded with 320 grit sandpaper to remove

any dust nibs and help smooth thesurface. but don't drive yourself crazy trying to get every inch perfectlysanded. in my experience, polyurethane will adhere just fine to the previouslayer even without sanding. but sanding will give the finish asmoother feel. and make sure you remove all of the sanding dust before applyingthe next coat. pay extra special care to applying the final coat to avoid brushmarks, runs, and streaks. and use a good quality brush. you can buy oil orwater-based poly. both provide excellent protection to wood and each has its ownadvantages and disadvantages. water-based poly is a lot easier to use.it has less odor and cleanup is easy

with just soap and water. to clean upoil-based poly, you'll need mineral spirits. water-based poly dries a lotfaster than oil-based poly but you'll need to apply more coats. usually threecoats is fine for oil, but water-based poly will need four or even more coats.but really the biggest difference in the two types is how they look on wood. itend to prefer oil-based polyurethane because it gives the wood a warmersomewhat amber look that most people find very pleasing. water-based poly isreally clear sometimes people complain that it looks like a plastic coating onwood. finally, there's a third option called wipe-on poly which is justregular polyurethane that the

manufacturer has thinned down with mineralspirits. you can actually just make your own if you like. it's easy to apply, justpour some on a rag and wipe it on the wood. wipe-on poly finish can look reallygreat and sometimes even better than a brushed on finish. of course you'llprobably need to add more coats of it for good results. if you've watched myshow for any length of time you know that my favorite finish to use is alacquer. it looks great and it dries incredibly fast. with lacquer you canfinish an entire project in just a few hours. even faster for small projects.almost all wood furniture that you might buy at a store is finished with lacquer.in industrial and professional

production environments it's always sprayedon with an hvlp sprayer. you can learn more about hvlp sprayinghere. luckily there are two easier options available for hobbyists andweekened woodworkers. the first is brushing lacquer. apply it using theexact same brushing procedure i described for polyurethane. the onlychange in technique is to brush a little faster and definitely, definitely don'tbrush back and forth. lacquer dries so quickly that it can gum up if youoverwork it. again, if you miss a spot don't try to fix it, just get it in thenext coat. if you can set up a backlight so that you can look across the surfaceas you apply the finish that helps out a

lot. the best part about lacquer is thatyou don't need to sand it between coats. rather than sitting on top of each other,each coat fuses into the one beneath it and this combination of fast drying andnot having to sand allows you to build up lots of coats of lacquer in a veryshort time. you'll need lacquer thinner to clean your brushes but i don't clean thebrushes thoroughly between coats. i like to just wrap the brush in a paper towelor rag moistened with lacquer thinner and just put it in a plastic bag. i liketo lightly sand the surface before applying the final coat of lacquer thiswill knock down any little dust nibs or drips and make the top coat very smooth.without question, lacquer from a spray

can is my go-to finish. it's easy to apply,just spray it on in a back-and-forth motion being careful not to get tooclose or too slow where it can develop drips or runs. for small projects spraylacquer is an absolutely fantastic finish. you don't need any brushes orlacquer thinner. to learn more about my technique for getting a great spraylacquer finish, watch this video over here. after the lacquer has fully curedsay 24 hours or so, i like to smooth out the topcoat. to me this is what separatesa good finish from a great finish. one that isvery tactile and feels smooth without any dust nibs or other imperfections. ialmost always use gloss lacquer to get

an easy satin finish. from that i lightlysand the surface with faurot steel wool or a gray synthetic scrubbing pad. if youwant you can actually rub that finish to a super high-gloss finish using finerand finer sandpaper and pumice. but that's a topic for another video. iusually limit it to just that one smoothing because i like the look andfeel of a satin finish. of course you can buy satin lacquer but you'll still needto rub down that final coat if you want it to have that great tactile feel. glosslacquer is just more versatile. lacquer can be more expensive than otherfinishes, especially the spray cans. secondly, lacquer has a very strong orderthat can be really harmful to breathe so

use a respirator rated for organicvapors and solvent filtering. lastly, some people complain about the look oflacquered finishes saying they look too artificial. i don't share that opinion atall and i love the look of lacquered pieces. when you want a beautiful finishthat looks absolutely gorgeous and really shows off the wood, an oil finishis a great option, plus it's really the easiest finish to apply. but like imentioned earlier, an oil finish doesn't offer much protection to wood it wouldnot be a good choice say for a dining table or a desk that's subjected to alot of use. but an oil finish can be a good option for decorative pieces saypicture frames or jewelry boxes. oil

finishes are arguably the most naturallooking, close to the wood, earthy way to finish wood. there are basically twotypes of oil finishes tung oil and linseed oil.they both penetrate into the wood unlike lacquer or polyurethane that builds upon top of the wood. applying either one is easy you just pour some on a rag ordirectly on the wood surface and wipe it in. let it sit for five to ten minutesthen wipe it off. if i'm using linseed oil i'd like to let it dry a couple ofhours and then lightly sand the surface and apply a second coat. i've never seenany benefit to applying any more coats than two. let it dry overnight and you'regood to go.

tung oil on the other hand can take days.use the same wipe on wipe off procedure as a linseed oil but let it dry 24 hoursbefore sanding it and applying the next coat. usually you'll need to apply fouror five coats. the benefit to tung oil is that it offers more water resistancethan linseed oil so it might be a good choice for say an end table that doesn'tget a whole lot of use. but if water resistance is your main concern whybother with an oil finish at all? just use poly or lacquer. a third alternativethat i consider an oil finish is danish oil and it it's actually a blend ofpolyurethane and tung or linseed oil. i think it tries to be the best of bothworlds in for the most part it does a

pretty good job. but as you might expectit doesn't look quite as natural as a pure oil finish and it doesn't offer theprotection of a layered finish. in fact, a lot of people apply a coat of straightpolyurethane on top of the danish oil for added protection. for the most partfinishing doesn't have to be a real chore and for small projects you can'tgo wrong with the simplicity of spray lacquer. well there are lots of other types offinishes such as shellac and finishing wax and there are tons of differenttechniques for finishing wood. i hope this video has been helpful and isenough to get you started. please be sure

to subscribe to woodworking for meremortals and share this video if you found it useful. thanks for watchingeverybody! i'll see you next time.

Tweet

Subscribe to receive free email updates: