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91 VIDEO Table Top Buffing
Jan 24, 2024
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View Video Transcript
0:00
A while back I made a video about refinishing this tabletop
0:04
This is Acacia wood. The top is about 50 years old. It was the kitchen table in the home that my wife grew up in
0:14
in South America and Central America. They brought the table with them, eventually all the way to Canada
0:19
And it needed refinishing and I showed you about sanding and I showed you a kind of an oil finish, a varnish oil finish that I like
0:27
and that made the tabletop look nicer. This video is about how I'm going to refine the surface
0:34
with some sanding and some buffing to make it very smooth. So I've got three sections
0:42
The tabletop is divided into three. This is the oiled end. And it looks pretty good
0:51
My only complaint about it is that it's not perfectly smooth. It's very smooth
0:56
it but I'm just working in a regular shop here so when I put the last coat of oil on
1:03
it stays wet for a while and there's always particles of dust and things floating
1:08
around in the air even if you can't see them and it settles on here and that's that's
1:12
what I'm feeling this would actually smooth out quite a bit in use because you know
1:16
people's elbows on the table and wiping after meals it all has a kind of a buffing
1:20
effect but I want to make it a little bit smoother a little bit nicer before we put it back
1:26
into service. So I've done some things. This procedure I'm telling you about can be used to buff
1:33
a lot of different kinds of services. And it's kind of magic, actually. The effect that you get
1:39
is tremendous. So oiled and nothing else. My first job is to get rid of these little dust bumps
1:48
I can't see them, but I can feel them. When it comes to stuff like this, your fingers see a lot better
1:53
than your eyes do. So this middle section here I have knocked the dust bumps off with 2.20
2:05
sandpaper. Very likely, though, I don't want to remove any of the oil that's soaked into
2:13
the wood. I just want to knock off those dust bumps. And so gentle hand operation, always with the
2:21
grain at this stage and just back and forth like this. Now there's a couple of things to note here
2:31
You see how that's dusty and that dust is coming off. That's what I want to see. If I had tried to do
2:37
this a couple of days ago, the oil would have felt dry, but it wouldn't have dusted up like this
2:45
So this had, in order for this buffing process to unfold properly, your finish has to be
2:51
completely dry. So I'm just going to continue and you see that it's making it smoother
2:58
which is a good thing. I mean this feels a lot nicer than that. But of course I've lost the depth
3:06
of grain It kind of cloudy now That not what I want But that okay because I can get rid of that later So I just keep on going and finish sanding this whole end of the table Just to remove the dust bump
3:24
It's very important
3:40
It's very important not to round over the corners right now because if I did that, I very quickly go through the protection that the oil has given to the wood
3:54
So we do not want to get down to bare wood at this stage
3:59
We just want to smoothen off the topography of this tablecloth. Now I'm going to go over the whole table again, make sure I don't feel any more dust bumps
4:16
But right now, it feels really good. And I'm going to go to the next step, which is the initial buffing
4:25
And I'm going to do that with a power tool. But first I'm going to vacuum everything off because I don't want any dust or anything remaining
4:35
I don't want that present when I'm buffing because if it's there, it's going to interfere
4:40
with the surface. So time for a little vacuuming now. So this is a 3M rubbing pad. I'm going to be using it for this second phase
4:56
Actually, it's two 3M rubbing pads. This is what they call the fine. And that's what I'm going to use
5:02
initially. The tabletop feels very smooth, but this will bring it to another level. And then I'm going to
5:10
to continue the buffing with this super fine grit, I guess you could call it. And then there'll be
5:17
one more step after this, and then we're ready to put out the roast turkey on this table. So I could
5:24
do this buffing by hand. I could push this back and forth, and it would do a good job. But I'm
5:33
going to use this random work with sandry because it speeds the process and makes it more thorough
5:38
What you should notice right now is that this end of the table, which used to be nice and lively and deep in color, is now kind of cloudy looking
5:48
So is this other part. The whole table is going to get that way. But that's okay
5:54
It's going to get less so when I use this white pad
5:59
And then there's one final step that'll bring out the full depth of grain and not introduce some of the things
6:08
that I felt before. So pretty simple. You just throw it on there
6:12
I happen to have a sanding disk on here. I could just as easily take it off and just use the Velcro
6:16
It doesn't really matter. But you just put this on, switch it on
6:21
and that's going to spin the pad and vibrate it, and I'm just going to methodically work
6:26
from one end to the other until I have everything covered. Thank you I finished buffing with the fine
6:39
I've finished buffing with the fine pad and I want to explain something
6:56
As I mentioned before, I finished this with oil. But if I had finished this with urethane, the results at this stage would be quite different because a urethane finish, that would be a film-forming finish with a good surface film, you know, at least three, maybe four, maybe even five coats
7:15
After it's had the dust bumps knocked off and after I've gone over it with this fine pad, there would be a lovely satin sheen
7:24
It would be as smooth as glass, but not quite as shiny as glass
7:29
Now, I don't have that effect going on here because this is an oil finish and there's not much of a surface film
7:34
So I'm just pointing out the difference. If I was dealing with the earthane finish and I went ahead and repeated the same buffing process with this super fine pad
7:45
I would eventually end up with something that's quite glossy and very perfect
7:51
And it would look like a new car. I'm ready to move to the super fine, but it's not going to bring out the full shine and luster
8:00
that I would get from a film forming finish. What I'm going to do is I'm going to take these buffing pads as far as I can
8:07
and make things really nice to the touch. And then because I'm dealing with an oil finish as a final step, just to bring out the full
8:16
richness of the grain, I'm going to go over with the thinest little skiff of oil
8:22
just to bring out the color. It's amazing the difference that makes. And I'll show you that when we get there. But for now, I'm just going to continue
8:31
buffing with this fine pad. I should mention too, this pad's actually a little on the small side
8:38
One of the very terrible things that can happen to you at this stage is that you might not be paying attention and the pad kind of
8:46
loosens and falls out and you actually touch down with the sander
8:50
but I don't need to explain to you why that would be a problem but it is so I'm going to be careful about
8:57
and we're just going to do some some buffing here So it's been a few days now and I'm doing a change of plans here
9:28
Before I told you I was going to give it just a final little very dry white down with oil
9:33
to bring out the grain. But what I discovered with this particular table is that lots of buffing with a superfine
9:41
pad really brings out quite a nice luster. And you can kind of see it here
9:47
I going to be doing some more of that but you notice I switched to a bigger more powerful random orbit sander This is my 6 inch and it just jiggles more and it buffs more thoroughly and that what I going to do here
10:04
So I'm just going to go back and forth a little bit, finish up with the buffing
10:10
It feels terrific, and the sheen is coming up just right, so I'm not going to interfere
10:17
with things with any more oil. I think this is going to do just fine. But I use this
10:21
this one the same way that I use the other one too. So just put the pad underneath
10:47
So I'll do some more of that and we'll call this tabletop done
11:04
There is one little thing I want to show you, one little trick. If you look over here, somewhere along the line, as I said in a previous video
11:12
this table's a little more than 50 years old. someone has used some filler here
11:17
probably a long time ago when filler wasn't color matched closer to wood but there is a little trick
11:25
I'm going to try it here not sure it's going to work but it's worked well in other instances
11:30
so let me just grab something show you how you can cover up flaws like that
11:34
one thing about flaws in wood is that they look way better when they're darker
11:41
than the surrounding wood than when they're lighter than the surrounding wood I'm not sure why that is, except maybe it's because knots are usually darker than the surrounding wood
11:50
So when we see defects or little disturbances in the green, they're usually darker
11:56
That's what we're used to seeing. And so that's why this light colored thing stands out so much
12:01
But a little fine tip sharpie. I'm going to simulate a black knot here
12:10
And just see it. It's not going to look worse, and I think it's going to look a whole lot better
12:33
It doesn't look better? It would be nice if we didn't have to deal with this stuff at all, but I think that
12:41
stands out. That's not going to catch your eye, whereas the white stuff would definitely catch
12:47
your eye, so just a little tip. So as you can see, the buffing's all done. I've got a nice
12:52
level of sheen. This is exactly what I'm aiming for. If you found the video useful, I'd appreciate
12:59
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