65VIDEO Final Pre Finish Preparations

In this video, I want to share with you some tricks I've developed over the years for preparing your wood projects for finishing

So I'm actually going to be putting on some urethane on these parts

and I'm going to go through the whole pre-finishing process that I go through

Before I get started, just an overview. We want to finish all sides of these pieces of the footstool, so how do we do that

Well, you could stand the pieces up on the edges that don't matter

But that's not the greatest, because, well, in the case of the top, there are no edges that don't matter

I mean, this is a leg, so I guess technically it could sit on the bench like this, and we could urethane it

But the problem with that is that urethane is probably going to run down, especially if you're not experienced with it

You could get some runs. If you're painting down here and it's resting on a bench, you could be bringing some dirt up with it

So I really don't like to do the standing up method, but I do like this that you see here

This is just some scrap wood, and I've driven some finishing nails through that

You don't want to leave this lying around on the floor, of course, in case anybody steps on it

But this sort of thing is great for holding up pieces that are being finished all around on all sides

The part where it's touching, just the nail points, that won't make any difference

You won't see that in the finished project. So ultimately, when I do get to urethaning, these pieces are going to sit here like this so that they can dry all around

But before I get that far, there's a little bit of work that I need to do that I want to show you

And that's just a final examination and hand sanding. And you're really looking for two things at this stage

You're looking for any dirt that may have come onto the wood

Because bare wood like this, it grabs onto stains quite a bit

So you're looking for any fingerprints or marks or anything. You also want to have clean hands, too

Go and wash your hands if you haven't done that yet. Because any dirt on your hands is going to show up on the wood

I've got a piece of 220 grit sandpaper here. And I'm just picking this up and I'm looking at it

And I'm kind of going over the faces and the edges. And what you can't see right now is the light that I have set up to help me with this

Light is very important because it's going to highlight any errors. And you don't want to just be doing this in regular light

Because it's very easy to miss a spot that you should be correcting

You can use any kind of light you want. What I'm using here is the same thing

It's mainly the light we use for video shooting. This is why this particular scene is well illuminated

It's because we have what's called a ring light, which is a circular light. You can vary the intensity

It's shining at me right there, right now. So I'm holding this here

And I'm looking at things. And I'm going over. There's a little bit of dirt there

Picked up a little bit of dirt. I'm sanding that off. I'm also working on my piece of foam again

Because there's no point in me refining this side of the project

Only to find that that side is getting damaged or dirty from what's underneath

So you just go over this carefully. And clean hands, clean surface, clean piece of sandpaper

And after you've done that, you've basically stopped what I call being in construction mode

You now have to switch gears into what I call finishing mode

And the biggest difference between construction mode and finishing mode is that finishing mode needs to be very, very clean

So you want to clean everything off. I could just brush this off

I could just use a hand broom or something and brush it off. But I'm telling you that suction power, something from a vacuum, is by far the best way to clean wood before you finish

And the reason for that is because it can pull out fragments of wood, sawdust, things like that, from the pores of the wood

If I just brush this off, some of that sawdust is going to stay in the pores

Or in little nooks and crannies like where the screw heads go, things like that

So I want a vacuum. I happen to have installed a central vac system in my shop specifically for this purpose

You don't need anything so fancy. Even a household vacuum is fine

A shop vac, portable shop vac, that's going to work really well

You do want a brush. You don't want to go with a hard attachment like one of those upholstery attachments or something

The problem with them is, without the brush, the plastic of the attachment is going to rub onto the wood

And that can leave stains in and of itself. So you want some kind of a brush

And you're just kind of going over it like this. As a final step

Now in practice, you don't just want to clean the work pieces either

You want to clean the surface that you're going to be putting those nail-embedded pieces of wood on

And you also want to clean your shop too. Because it's not just the dust that you see on surfaces that's a problem

It's the dust that you kick up as you walk around. There will always be airborne dust particles

And they're always going to fall and settle on your wet urethane surface

And cause a little bit of roughness. At least a little bit. No matter how much you clean up, that's going to happen

And there are ways to solve that problem. But you want to stack the deck in your favor

So the biggest thing between switching from construction mode to finishing mode is cleanliness

It's really a very different kind of work now. And so sweep the floor if you can

Vacuum the floor. Clean all the areas. Do your sanding in the direction of the light

Vacuum all your pieces off. And then set all of the pieces down in position on your little nail-impregnated boards

And then you get out the finish and start applying it. You basically pick them up, finish it, put them down again

That's what I'm going to show you right now. We're actually going to switch gears into urethaning mode

At this stage, I've got all of my footstool pieces sanded. Final sanding complete

I've vacuumed everything off. I've vacuumed the shop. I've got the pieces. They're dry, but they're sitting on those nail boards right now

And I'm ready to get going. I've made the decision that I'm going to use water-based urethane for the stool

Even though I generally like oil-based better when I can obtain it

It's harder to find. But the one advantage of water-based is that it doesn't impart any yellowish color to the wood

Oil-based products do add a kind of a yellowish color. Now, that might sound kind of dingy, but it's not

It's more antique-y in a sense. But I want a cleaner, more modern look for the stool

So I'm going to go with the water-based. And I've got some gloves on

They're kind of optional, really, to tell you the truth. But gloves are nice because it just keeps your hands clean

There's no toxicity issue with water-based urethane. So it's not really to protect you against anything

But before I dip in and start painting, I'm going to be stirring this a bit

When it comes to water-based urethane, it never looks like there's anything that needs stirring

But there often is. Especially the flattening agent. So that would be a component of the mixture that would cause it not to be shiny when it dries

I've seen some urethanes where the flattening agent rests on the bottom

even though you can't really see it in the can. So you have the unfortunate result of having things that are painted from the top of the can

shinier than things that are painted from the bottom, which is not what you want

So I've already stirred this before, but I never use any kind of finish without stirring it just before use

This is a brush that has synthetic bristles. So polyester or polypropylene or something

I'm not sure what the fibers are made out of. But this is the kind of brush you want to use with water-based because the bristles do not absorb water

If you're doing oil-based, you should use what's called a natural bristle brush

And those things actually are made of technically what's called bristles. Bristles can mean these things, but more specifically, a bristle is a hair from a pig

So a true bristle brush, the kind you'd want to use with oil-based products, is actually pig hairs

The problem is that if you use a brush like that with water-based urethane

the bristles tend to swell up because they absorb the moisture. They don't absorb the oil-based urethane, if that's what you're using

But if it's water-based, they do absorb it. To be honest, it really wouldn't be a problem for such a small collection of parts like this

The brush wouldn't have a chance to soak up the moisture and get all sort of fat and flabby like they do

But we might as well stick with the proper way to do things, right? So here we have the synthetic bristle brush

I'm ready to start applying it now, but I want to talk a bit about the technique

So, right now we have the best face upwards on these pieces of wood

That's true for three of them. This is the center piece, the cross piece, so it's kind of nice on both sides

So it doesn't really matter what we start with. But ultimately, I'm going to coat each of these pieces completely

I'm not going to do one side and let it dry and then do another. I'm going to do them completely

But I'm going to let the top surface, the most presentable surface, remain facing up when I'm actually finished

So this is a leg. So I'm going to start on the bottom because I want the bottom to face down when I actually set it aside to dry

Once again, this is a great situation for having a light to show me what's going on

I don't want to apply too much, but I don't want to apply so much that it's going to run and pool

Even though I'm allowing these pieces of wood to dry horizontally, so that's going to be minimizing the tendency to run

if I put the stuff on too thick, it will pool and it can dry in a crinkly sort of way

So I want to slake the thirst of the wood, but no more for this first coat

Now, remember I told you water-based urethane dries quite quickly? So you don't want to keep brushing and re-brushing areas that you've already done

You can re-brush a certain amount, but I don't want to go back over this spot, say in a few minutes

because then it would have already started to dry. This particular water-based urethane is somewhat slower drying than most

which is a great thing because it lets the liquid flow out

Flowing out and hiding brush marks and things is not that important on the first coat

and that's because the wood is so thirsty. There's probably not going to be a lot sitting on the surface because it gets drawn into the wood

But second, third, and fourth coats are much more run-prone, so you want to have a good system for that

Now, you'll notice that I'm touching some parts of this with my gloved hands, even though they're wet

I want to keep that to a minimum, but it's kind of unavoidable, at least in a small way

No matter, though, you won't be able to see any of that when we're all done

This is the top of the leg, so it's not going to be seen, but I am going to put some urethane on it anyway, just to help equalize the absorption and loss of moisture through all the parts here

And I'll do this final edge here. This is where the light is helping me again

This is where the light is helping me again. You probably can't see where you are, but I can see the light is highlighting some areas of excess urethane

so I'm taking care of those while I can. There, too much urethane. Okay

Now, this last face, which, as I said, is the most important face, because it's the one we're going to see, I want to do in place

So, I'm looking around here. Are there any runs down the sides that I need to clean up at this stage

There's no. There will be, though, because, as you can see, when I work close to the edge, which I need to do

there's a very good chance some might run down the edge. So, the final check that I'm going to do is to make sure there's nothing running down the sides

Okay. Got some on my neighboring piece there. That's no problem

Once again, the light is really helping me at this stage. I can see a little spot here that I missed

Another one over here. A little bit of pooling here. Notice how I'm not, I'm not, I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it just to show you what not to do

but don't go like that, because that just put a whole bunch of extra finish on the end

When you come to the end, you want to brush off of it, not on it

So, off this direction, off that direction, off this direction, off that direction

There we go. That's ready to set aside. I'm going to do the others now, and then I'm going to follow the procedures that I wrote about in the course

about sanding between coats. There's also some very powerful information on how to use your random orbit sander to buff the finish

So, if you want to take it from what I would consider a good or a very good finish

to an outstanding finish that feels just like a piece of glass, and it's just as smooth in every way

then that's where buffing comes in. So, later in the course, I'll show you what my completed stool looks like

and I encourage you to send me photos of your stool too, so we can share them around and learn from each other

So, one more thing before I go. It's very important that you let these pieces dry thoroughly before taking them to the next level, or the next step

The next step would be sanding between coats and adding another coat

So, I'm going to let this dry overnight, even though it's going to feel dry to the touch in a few hours

But dry to the touch is not necessarily dry. And it matters more with oil-based than water-based, I find

because oil-based can seem dry to the touch, but if when you sand between coats

you're not actually generating some powdery dust, if it's more gummy and it balls up

that's a sign, a fairly common sign, that you haven't let it dry enough

You want it to be absolutely bone dry, so there's no rush

You're not doing this professionally. You don't have bills to pay with the footstools you make

So, I would recommend letting it dry, as I said, overnight. Now, that's enough for water-based or oil-based

and you're going to know you've let it dry long enough by the way it sands afterwards

It's going to sand very nicely. There's not going to be any gumming of the sandpaper

It'll just produce some nice white powder. You can vacuum that off and then apply another coat, and you'll be very pleased