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Best Way to Finish a Tabletop - Bailey Line Life #14
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Feb 22, 2024
After 40 years of cabinetmaking, here's the best, easiest, and most maintainable method I've found for finishing a wooden tabletop. READ MY POPULAR ARTICLES ABOUT: Polyurethane Finish - https://bit.ly/powerbuffing DIY Hoop House Plans - https://bit.ly/hoophouseplans Submersible Pump Installation - https://bit.ly/pumpinstallation Air-Drying Wood Tips - https://bit.ly/wooddrying How to Build a Table - https://bit.ly/tablebuilding How to Stain a Deck - https://bit.ly/deckstain Choosing Waterproof Outdoor Glue - https://bit.ly/exterioradhesives How To Build A Wheelchair Ramp - https://bit.ly/wheelchairrampplans FREE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER: https://bit.ly/2T3USuy PREVIOUS EPISODES: https://bit.ly/2EVDuFg WATCH MORE BAILEY LINE ROAD: Winter Tips - https://bit.ly/2rpnUcm Product Tours - https://bit.ly/2L2H54Q
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0:00
Interesting spot for a fine hardwood dining table
0:04
Have you lost your marbles? Outside in the middle of winter in Canada
0:08
I'm actually going to be refinishing this table. I've got a bunch of things that's in the shop
0:15
and I'm finishing them now. I'm in the process of finishing them now. So I want to do the dusty work outside here
0:20
I don't always sand wood outside in the middle of a Canadian winter. But it's a nice day
0:25
And I thought that you'd appreciate learning the tips and tricks for finishing a tabletop
0:32
The thing about a tabletop is that the surface is so prominent. So if there's any problem, if there's any bubbles or brush strokes
0:39
or whatever, that's going to be an issue. Another problem, another challenge with tabletops is that
0:44
when you finish them with a film forming finish, which this top is finished with
0:49
eventually it wears out and you can't really repair it. You need to strip back to bare wood and start again
0:55
So I'm going to be sanding. I'm going to be showing you how to do that properly on a tabletop
1:00
And then also we're going to be finishing this with a repairable oil finish
1:05
So instead of going through this rigmarole again, we can just rub it down by hand and put on another coat of oil
1:13
and make it look as good as new again. So nice looking and repairable
1:18
That's the name of the game here. Almost perverse that you're about to take that aggressive belt sander to this
1:24
Yeah, this finish isn't all that bad. I mean, if you look closely, you can see some cracks forming, some age cracks
1:34
I don't know if you can see them in that light. I can see them pretty closely here. Yeah
1:38
Age cracks. We did a little homeschooling with our youngest daughter on this table
1:43
and I think she's done some vandalism here. I think she got bored or angry
1:52
Why are these holes, pairs like this all over the place? Near her when she was homeschooling, I had a stapler that shot in U-shaped staples
2:03
for holding cables down. So I've had a talk with Ellie about that
2:09
Really? She stapled the table? Well, look at how consistent the spacing is, right
2:15
It's exactly the spacing of those staples. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes
2:19
No, I don't think. I'm going to start with a belt sander with the grain. If this was a tabletop I was making from scratch and there was some mismatch
2:26
from one piece to the other, one higher or lower than the other
2:30
I'd probably start sanding cross grain. It leaves scratches, but it removes wood very quickly
2:37
and then I would finish up with the parallel grain sanding. But I'll just go right to the parallel grain now
2:42
An 80 grit belt, that's a good starting grit. I'm going to sand all of the stuff off on the surface with this
2:50
and then I'm going to do the edges, probably with a random orbit sander
2:54
And then I'm going to go over it again with 120, 120 belt on the top
2:58
and then do some hand sanding and maybe some sanding with a finish sander
3:03
So, here we go. That's going to work fine
3:21
I'll just keep working at that, but notice here, we've got some things going on
3:25
This is bare wood and then this is where a little bit of the old finish remains
3:31
You can see the cracks that have formed in here from age
3:35
as that finish has aged. I don't want to take off any more than necessary
3:40
so I'm going to be watching for that color difference as I go
4:06
So, I've finished sanding with the 80 grit belt and I'm really quite pleased that those little vandalisms
4:13
that someone in our house did are gone. The deepest one was here, and I think it's going to pretty well disappear
4:21
but all that other stuff is fixed. I did that with the 80 grit belt parallel to the grain
4:27
and then I switched to a 120 grit belt to bring the finish up a little finer
4:32
My next step will be to use 180 grit sandpaper in a finishing sander
4:39
This is a random orbit sander and I have been using it along the edge to get rid of the finish
4:45
First with an 80 grit disc, now a 120. One of the things about finishing a tabletop is that
4:51
I never use a random orbit sander on the tabletop because the action of the abrasive is swirly in shape
5:02
and it will leave swirly marks behind. You won't see it so much until the finish goes on
5:07
and then you'll see it and then it'll be too late. Now, I'm just going to refine the edge a little bit more
5:12
with this pretty big random orbit sander. I will remove the scratch marks on the side
5:18
There's not going to be that many and it's not that prominent. The thing about a tabletop is that the finish, the surface is so prominent
5:26
That's why you have to be very particular. So, this is my trusty quarter sheet finishing sander
5:56
I've used the belt sander, 80 and 120. I've gone over the tabletop with 180 in this sander
6:04
and I'm just going to go over it now with 220. Same procedure for the edge
6:09
and that will be it for the machine sanding. Then I'm going to take this into the shop
6:14
I'm going to do some hand sanding parallel to the grain looking very closely at everything
6:19
I'm going to round the edge very slightly with the hand sandpaper so that it's a little more chip resistant
6:28
and then we'll be getting to that oil finish I was telling you about
6:50
The thing to understand about sanding at this stage is and you wouldn't know it just by watching me
6:56
but when I'm going over, it's systematic from one end to the other
7:01
and I'm looking very closely everywhere to make sure there's no finish remaining
7:07
or no scuff marks or scratches or anything like that. That's how you get a nice finish
7:11
It feels super smooth. There's not a cross-grain scratch anywhere on this
7:16
I think it's going to turn out really nice. Now I've got the tabletop in the shop
7:20
and I'm going to be putting on that oil finish. It's actually a varnish oil
7:26
so it's a mixture of linseed oil and varnish but it behaves just like a true oil finish
7:32
because you apply it, you let it soak in for about half an hour or an hour
7:37
and then you wipe everything off so it's just the stuff that soaks in
7:42
that you want to be on top of. The same thing that you want to be on the wood
7:47
and you repeat that process at least three times. I think for a table like this we're probably going to do four or five coats
7:53
It takes a long time and the instructions say to let it dry for 24 hours between coats
7:59
but it takes longer than that to dry between coats. So it's a process
8:04
but the beauty is that it affords terrific protection and it's also repairable
8:10
So if this table was in the kitchen and it was getting kind of scuffed and scratched
8:14
we'd go over it with a rubbing pad vacuum it off clean and then right in the kitchen apply some more of this
8:20
and it's like I said highly repairable which makes it way better than any kind of film forming finish
8:27
So let's get to work. So our job right now is just to get the oil on the table
8:33
So we don't have to be very neat about it. We just need to put it on and brush it around
8:41
quite thin really. It's a lot thicker now than it's going to be
8:48
But boy that oil sure brings out the wood grain. Looks great
8:54
So we'll just go over the whole table make sure everything's wet
8:58
and then we'll go away for about an hour and come back with some rags and wipe off all that we can
9:04
So I'm really pleased and surprised at how this grain has come to life
9:10
since the oil is on. It's wet and shiny and not very smooth looking right now
9:19
but that's okay because as I said before we're going to be wiping all this stuff off
9:25
after 30 to 60 minutes or so. One of the things to keep in mind here is
9:32
the wood absorbs this material at different rates. It's all pretty saturated on the surface right now
9:40
but there's a spot, thirstier than other spots. Where else can I find one
9:47
I think that's the most prominent one at the moment. I want the surface to stay wet
9:53
so in 10 or 15 minutes I'll come out here again with the brush and just push some of the liquid
10:00
onto the places that are thirstier and that have kind of dried out a little bit
10:06
because the job here now is to saturate the wood grain, the wood pores
10:12
and then wipe it all off and then let it dry and repeat the process again
10:18
to build up this oil layer. So I've applied three coats now
10:24
and I've let it dry actually for four days between coats. The way I know that it's dry is not because the surface feels dry
10:33
because it feels dry as soon as I finish wiping it like you see here, I'm just wiping off this fourth coat
10:39
But the rag that I use is a great indication of when the oil actually dries
10:46
because for a couple of days after I put it on it hasn't dried appreciably and unless it's dried on the surface
10:53
you're not going to be able to build anything in the pores of the wood
10:58
Not that you want to film, but you do want all the pores saturated
11:04
That's what we're doing here. I'm not actually wiping with my full force here
11:10
There's a tiny bit left on the surface. That's essentially it. I will go over this later when all the coats are on and it's dry dry
11:24
I'm going to go over it again with a buffing pad just to give it a final little bit of smoothness
11:28
and then it'll be good for a couple of years of hard use
11:32
So thanks for joining me this week. Subscribe, hit the notifications bell, like if you like the video
11:38
and check out my website in the description box. You can sign up for my weekly newsletter there
11:43
where I talk about all kinds of stuff like this and more. So thanks again. See you next week
#Home Improvement
#House Painting & Finishing