First try at a 'real' finish

Okay I've built things before, and finished them with paint or poly.
I didn't know sandpaper came on grades higher than 120.
But this BB has opened me to many possibilities and I have been forever corrupted.

So I came away from the Melb WWW show armed with a R/O sander - Organoil (hard burnishing) - and a swansdown mop.

I have a pine coffee table I built that has been standing around forever waiting for me to get the knowhow and guts to try to finish it. I took said coffee table and using the R/O sander went through the grades to 400.

I then brushed on a coat of the oil. On the top it was being sucked in as fast as I put it on so I kept putting it on until it slowed down. Then I buggered off for 1/2 an hour for a coffee.

When I returned there was still a wet look over most of the table top so taking the 400 grit on the R/O I went over the oil thoughly and then wiped off with a flanno rag.

It looked great. The pine took on a golden shimmer as the light moved over it. It felt like warm glass.

Bouyed by such sucess I thought what if I polish with higher grades? So the next day down to Bunnies I go for some 600, 800 and 1200 wet and dry paper. (they dont carry anything above 400 in the velcro discs).
I wet the paper (not the wood) with oil and hand sand, wiping clean in between grits. The results ... dissappointing, I could see no difference between the R/O 400 and hand sand to 1200.

Next I tried the mop to deepen the luster but again no difference (it is designed for wax).

So the up shot is it looks great, and I didn't stuff up despite experimentation.

Now - did I do it right?
Is it worth tracking down finer grades of 150mm velcro discs? (where from?)
Anything else I should do for a great - straight oil finish?

Hi
Its a bugger that the finner grade discs only come in 150mm.
I hade to buy two whole boxes of 800 and 1200 or else the supplier would get them.
I reckon that I will have enough of them until I die.
I still use them on my 125mm disc thingymabob.
The timber comes up like glass, even without the finish.
Cheers, Allan :)

Dave - find the sanding disks before you start. They are available in grits up to 2500. Try somewhere that deals with the automotive trade. Give Bunnies and most other hardware's the flick they are only interested in supplying the stuff that the common everyday Joe will use. Try an abrasives specialist (let the fingers do the walking).

The first problem with your application of Organoil is that you didn't follow the instructions to the letter if at all. You may need the mop in another week or two when the shine dulls off. Organoil needs to have heat applied to it through sanding with the higher grits. this draws the oil back to the surface where it polymerizes. What you probably have at the moment is shining timber with oil in it. I will just about guarantee that within a couple of weeks it will be dull and almost lifeless, unless the formulation of the oil has changed. This can usually be fixed with a good buffing or a coat of wax.

Hope this helps a little.

Cheers - Neil ;)

Thanks guys.

Would the r/o 400 have done the job for heat/polymerization or does it have to be higher grades?
Once polymerized will the shine dull over weeks or is that only if it doesn't polymerize?
Will the difference in finish be how long it lasts or will I be able to see it?
So which grits do I need? 600, 800, 1200, 1500, 2000 ???

On the first pass I followed the instructions and finished with the r/o 400.
Only after that (when it was technically finished) did I experiment with the hand sanding.
So now to do it again with the higher grits should I re-oil the table or only lubricate the sandpaper with oil before spinning up the sander?

More questions will follow more answers :)

If you're prepared to to a little work, try some Triton disks - they go up to 1200grit and have velcro backs. As they're made for the Triton RO sander, they don't have dust collector holes - get yourself a 10mm hollow punch and a good sized piece of endgrain anything, lay an old disk for your sander on top of a Triton disk and punch away. Works a treat - at least for my Bosch sander!


Johnno2