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78VIDEO Wood prep and waterbased stain
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Jan 24, 2024
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View Video Transcript
0:00
I'm Steve Maxwell and I want to show you the secret to making the most of wood
0:10
which is finishing. And finishing that not only looks good, but it's also easy to prepare. I've
0:16
got some samples here of water-based urethane finish that I want to show you. As you can see
0:22
it comes in a whole bunch of different colors. You needn't use these non-traditional colors
0:26
the regular brown or even unstained and clearly sealed is an option. But whatever you choose
0:33
there are some techniques you have to put into practice if you want that wood to look great
0:39
Let's get started right now with the first part of the process, which is sanding. To show you
0:44
exactly how to apply this kind of finish, I'm going to use this piece of pine board. It's top
0:50
grade wood and it's as smooth as you can expect wood to be coming from the lumberyard, but there's
0:55
still a problem with it. You might be tempted to put a finish directly on this wood, but that would
0:59
be a huge mistake. You'd never get good results unless you do some sanding first. Take a close
1:05
look and I'll show you what I mean. On the surface, if you look closely, you'll see the undulation
1:10
marks left behind by the thickness planer that smoothened this wood. It's those marks that you
1:16
need to take off and the first tool you use for that is the belt sander
1:20
Well, I've just gone over the wood with a 100 grit belt in the belt sander and I've
1:47
removed all of those mill marks you saw a few seconds ago. The thing is though, that the belt
1:53
sander is still a fairly coarse tool. Even if I had a very fine belt on that sander, it's still
2:00
likely to leave gouges and scratches. If I didn't hold the sander exactly parallel to the grain
2:07
there's going to be some cross-grain scratching there. It's very hard to see at this stage
2:11
but it comes right out when you put the stain on it. So that's why I have step two
2:17
which is using this half sheet vibrating sander. The key to using the half sheet vibrating sander
2:26
is to use it with a light pressure. I've got 120 grit sandpaper on here and I was moving it back
2:33
and forth with the grain. The results are considerably smoother than with the belt
2:38
sander. To be honest, I could probably go right to stain right now, but just to make sure I've
2:44
got a flawless surface, there is a third sanding step. It doesn't take very long. It's similar to
2:49
this one, but it uses a quarter sheet finishing sander, a palm sander, which we'll also use later
2:54
on for our between coat sanding. But for now, we're just going to use it to refine the wood
2:59
that last little bit before we start putting some liquid on this piece of pine
3:08
The quarter sheet finishing sander is a great tool. It's small and light. In this case
3:19
I've used 180 grit sandpaper for that final sanding pass on the wood before we get to the
3:24
staining and urethane. When I come to use this for sanding between coats, which I'll explain in a
3:31
minute or two, I'll switch to 220 grit paper in that case. If you can, vacuum the surface clean
3:38
Dust is your enemy at this stage. Now, if you're working on a job site, you could use a shop vac
3:44
or even a hand broom used vigorously will probably be enough. But sanding wood is entirely different
3:54
operation than finishing wood. Finishing has got to be done in a surgically clean situation
4:01
and that's what we're creating now. At this stage, you have a choice to make. Well
4:20
you've probably made the choice before, but you're going to go in one of two directions right now. You can either stain the wood. They've got a range of colors here. There's a
4:28
traditional brownish color and a red and a blue, or you can go directly to sealing the finish
4:34
You'll need to seal on top of the stain too. In this case, we're using a water-based urethane
4:40
but if you're going to go with staining, then there's a step you need to do before you add
4:46
the color, and that's the application of a pre-stain conditioner. What that does is it
4:51
evens out the absorbency of the wood so you get much more smooth color
5:00
Water-based products have very low odor, and they dry very quickly. You might be wondering, though
5:09
if it's water-based, isn't the finish water-soluble? These products are water-soluble and water clean up when they're wet, but as they dry, they undergo a chemical change
5:23
that makes them insoluble in water. They're actually quite a tough and durable finish
5:30
Another advantage is that they don't yellow with age. If you want to preserve a
5:38
very white finish on the wood, then a water-based urethane on its own is the way to go
5:45
Now, this is the pre-stain conditioner, and I've applied an even coat
5:51
and we're going to let that dry before we come back and put some stain on
5:56
I'm going to let this dry for 15 to 30 minutes before I put the stain on
6:01
but before I do, I'm just going to wipe off all the excess. We don't want any of the pre-stain
6:07
conditioner sealing the surface or forming a film on it. We just want to slake the thirst of that
6:15
bare wood. Pre-stain conditioner has done its job. It's soaked in. We've wiped it off. It's
6:21
dried a little bit. If you detect any roughness at all, go over it with a piece of 240-grit sandpaper
6:28
in your hand, and that'll remove any of the grain that was raised as it soaked up the
6:34
water-based conditioner. Before you get started with the stain, give it a good stir. There's
6:40
pigments that you need to churn up from the bottom. When the color of the stain becomes
6:46
consistent, then you know you've got it completely mixed. Now comes the fun part, putting on some
6:54
stain. You want to put it on fairly thick. You're going to wipe it off again, just like we did with
7:01
the conditioner. When it goes on, it looks just like paint, but that's not what stain's all about
7:09
When we wipe it, we're going to reveal some of the wood grain underneath, and that's what makes
7:15
this combination look so good. The Minwax water-based stains that I prefer come in lots of
7:22
non-traditional colors like you see here, as well as a whole bunch of shades of brown, if you want
7:27
to stick with something more conventional. This, of course, is water-based stain that we've just put
7:32
on, and it dries fairly quickly, so you don't want to let the stain sit on the wood for too long
7:39
before you wipe it off, revealing that all-important wood grain underneath. And you do want to remove everything from the surface. It's only the liquid that's soaked in
7:50
below the surface that you want to remain. We've got the stain on the wood, and it's got to be
7:56
allowed to dry completely before the next step. Now, one note of caution. This doesn't really look
8:02
all that impressive yet, even though it's a really good staining job. The reason is because it doesn't
8:08
have the depth of color that the urethane brings out. What you need to do next is to coat with one
8:15
coat of urethane and let it dry. Then give it another coat of urethane, that's the second one
8:21
and when it's completely dry, lightly sand the surface with 220 grit sandpaper, either in the
8:27
quarter sheet palm sander I showed you before, or by hand in any intricate areas. Give it a third coat
8:34
but don't sand after that last coat. What you're probably going to find at that stage is that the
8:40
urethane looks something like this sample. This is pretty typical, especially when you're using
8:45
water-based urethanes. As you can see, there are some bumps, little specks of dust have fallen on
8:52
the surface and hardened there. Because water-based urethane dries so quickly, there's likely to be
8:59
brush marks. If there were any bubbles in the liquid as you put it on, they might harden in
9:04
place too. It looks pretty ugly. What you need to do to fix this is something that I've never seen
9:12
anyone else do before with water-based urethanes, but it works really well. That's using a random
9:18
orbit sander with a 3M rubbing pad to refine that surface and bring it up to a beautiful
9:25
shiny, silky gloss like you see here on this sample
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