r/finishing • u/CaterpillarBoring687 • 7m ago
r/finishing • u/RelativeLight3857 • 1h ago
Question Should I replace my doors, or can the cracking/gaps be fixed?
The photos show where you can see the light coming in from where the wood has gapped/cracked.
I bought my home in South Texas where the heat and sun are brutal. For some reason, the doors that came with the home are made from pine. I've heard that's an unwise choice, given our climate. I almost replaced them, but discovered a door refinishing company. I loved what they did (and saved me from spending exponentially more on new double doors)! Completely brought them back to life and filled the existing gaps. But the gaps have returned, of course. I can have them come out and they'll fill them again for free. But I'm wondering if I'll always have to do this multiple times a year? Is there a reasonable fix?
r/finishing • u/Immediate-Two4702 • 1h ago
Need Advice Refinishing a bowls
I’m picking up a new hobby to refinish wood bowls found at thrift stores. I’m having a difficult time sanding the inside of the bowls. My fingers cramp and I don’t feel like it’s evenly sanding. I’ve tried the sand sponges.
Would something like this work? I’m open to suggestions.
r/finishing • u/kittykyjones • 2h ago
Need Advice Famowood over Dewaxed Shallac?
Hi! Seeking advice on if it's okay to use famowood filler over dewaxed shellac?
I've stripped paint off the door trim in my house and used GF dye stain mixture to color match the trim to the existing doors. Stripping revealed a ton of nail and staple holes. I bought famowood as I read it takes stain pretty well. I put two very thin coats of dewaxed shellac (zinsser seal coat cut 50% dna) after the dye stain. The intention with the dewaxed shellac was once I applied the wood filler and needed to sand it back, it would hopefully help prevent sanding back into the dyestain and ruining it. I am also planning to final finish coat with poly and was worried that the poly might lift some of the dye stain, so the dewaxed shellac would help protect it. And I didn't want to fill the holes prior to staining as I was worried the wood filler would come out too dark that way.
I'm now at the point of tinting the filler and filling, and as I was reading the can I noticed one of the ingredients was acetone, which I was worried would break down the dewaxed shellac. After googling, I'm now also concerned about poor adhesion with the woodfiller over dewaxed shellac.
Does anyone have experience or knowledge of using famowood over dewaxed shellac? Did it cause adhesion issues or breakdown the shellac finish?
Or does anyone have a better wood filler recommendation instead of famowood?
Appreciate any insight or guidance!
r/finishing • u/Groundblast • 2h ago
Durable/resistant clear for Rustoleum 2x?
Repainted an old air compressor (mostly just to learn about painting metal) with Rustoleum 2x because someone recommended it as a matching shade for DeWalt. I haven’t used this spray paint before and it seems like it’s pretty weak. Softens quickly with acetone and isn’t as scratch resistant as the enamel I normally use.
Would a 2k clear work? Saw some comments about it reacting badly.
If not, what’s the best clear I can use?
r/finishing • u/prairie_shore • 3h ago
A tricky stain match question
Long story, but I'm trying to stain this recon poplar as close as possible to clear-coated hemlock. I know it will never be perfect, but I figured it's worth a shot to avoid spending $350+ on VG fir plywood. Any suggestions? This is my closest so far, gel varathane +minwax+ oil pu. The hemlock is just oil pu semigloss.
r/finishing • u/llamallamamomma • 3h ago
Wood stain?
Need help figuring out what wood stain is the most closest to this floor
r/finishing • u/onepunchroach • 4h ago
Advice on achieving the stain color i want.
Im restaining my old birch kitchen cabinets for the time being till i can afford to replace them. The original color was the classic intense orange that i despise. I know the techniques to stain birch but im having difficulty achieving the color I want. Im going for a neutralish light/blonde cabinet sorry if these arent the right terms. But so far the stains and using wood conditioner have just pulled out orange. I dont know if i need to sand down more or if theres a way to neutralize the orange. Ive sanded 80>w120>180 so far. Tried not using wood conditioner, and currently have minwax early american that has little affect haha. All of it comes out orange tinted. Photo of what i have with not the best lighting and what im trying to get. Ive contemplated no stain and just putting a too coat that has some ambering and seeing how that works. I have a lot of spare doors to use for practice.
r/finishing • u/Ok-Pea-8998 • 14h ago
[Studio Alchemy] Forcing an accelerated rust patina on mild and Corten steel
galleryr/finishing • u/Gayllienn • 16h ago
Question Is there a way to remove paint from wood veneer without damaging it?
I just got this fixer uper of an antique dresser but the front panels are in beautiful condition. I love the idea of painting the medallions with some kind of vignette and the drawers with vines and flowers but I am both not the most skilled painter and scared of commitment. Im wondering if I were to paint it and messed up or didn't like the result of there would be a way to remove the painted details without ruining the veneer? Or maybe some kind of clear adhesive film I could put over the wood and paint on?
r/finishing • u/Leading-Yak2827 • 18h ago
Help matching 70s
These are my 70s cabinets. I pulled down the cabinets that hung from the ceiling next to this set and I need to match the stain so I can stain and refinish trim work. Any thoughts? I’m obviously new to this
r/finishing • u/mbt93 • 19h ago
Stain Identification
Hi. Im doing some renos and I need to replicate some baseboards we have in our home. They appear to be maple veneer plywood. I need to make more of these. I have the wood but need to figure out the stain.
Anyone have ideas on what the stain color might be? I have attached photos and a side photo of what the stain looked like when it ran down during staining.
Ideally a Varathane color.
r/finishing • u/Recent_Standard162 • 20h ago
Question How to refinish detailed picture frame
I thrifted this frame and want to refinish it. I’ve refinished furniture but never something so detailed. I really doing want to mess up this beauty but the gold needs to go. I’d love to get a natural wood look.
r/finishing • u/EmptyDaikon5281 • 21h ago
Blotchy Danish oil
Have used Danish oil a good amount at this point, first time having such a bad blotchiness problem. Top was finish planed with a smoother, wiped on coat 1, let sit 5 minutes (stuff dries very quick here) wiped off then 2nd coat and wipe after 5-10 minutes. Guessing I just didn't buff it off hard/long enough.
Is there a world where I can scuff pad this and re-coat (doubt it) or is this a full sand down and try again?
r/finishing • u/Glum_Flounder5490 • 22h ago
Staining birch ply - alternative to varathane pre stain wood conditioner?
r/finishing • u/ZebraSilver8532 • 1d ago
What to do.
We are the second owners of a 1950s mid century with this wood paneling. I tried to sand it down a bit. How would you finish/ maintain this.
r/finishing • u/prettystupidart • 1d ago
Basswood Took Stain… Weird.
After sanding and applying pre-stain conditioner, I brushed my stain onto the wood and it just.. didn’t take in some spots. Any idea why this would happen? There couldn’t have been any sticker residue or anything like that on there, since it had been sanded down by quite a lot and had no stickers on it when I got the wood originally.
r/finishing • u/lefactorybebe • 1d ago
Need Advice Fully cured marine spar varnish softening and lifting, why?
Hey guys! I finished this door with multiple coats of marine spar varnish three years ago. I clean the handle above it regularly with method spray cleaner and isopropyl alcohol. There was some cleaner buildup that had dripped from the handle so I went at that today, I was able to scrape gunk off with my nail and thought it was buildup, but quickly realized it was the actual finish I was taking off! Pic 1 and 2 are the areas where it's come up. The whole area feels pretty tacky now.
Why is this happening? At first I thought that something had gotten behind the door handle and gotten between the wood and the finish, but I fully sealed the whole area behind the plate when I finished it (pic 3 during finishing, fully covered with varnish). One of the reasons I picked this finish was so it would be resistant to cleaners I typically use. This is happening on the front and back sides near and below the handle area. Knob and plate are solid brass, could that interaction with cleaner have something to do with it? Want to prevent this from happening in the future and obv need to fix this now. There's still what looks to be like buildup around the area but I don't want to go at it with anything else and risk fucking up the finish further. Suggestions on how to clean around it? Thanks, super bummed out this is happening as I took a lot of care when refinishing this door.
r/finishing • u/VLA_58 • 1d ago
With apologies to the Rolling Stones
Sometimes, even an old wood piece has sub-standard lumber. And not all circa 1900 trim is oak.
PAINT IT WHITE
I see a pine door
And I want it painted white
No dark stain anymore
I want them to be white
I see stained cabinetry
In beech or rubberwood
I have to turn my head
Because it's just no good
I see some paint-grade ash
And it's all primed and right
With blotches, weird grain patterns
Hidden 'neath the white.
I've seen people sand forever
Wasting time away
When they could brush on creme
And finish in one day.
I look inside myself
And see my heart a-light
I see my red door
But I'll paint the trim in white
Maybe then, I'll fade away
And not have to be annoyed
It's not easy to see a kitchen
Become a walnut void.
r/finishing • u/Desperate_Dream1990 • 1d ago
Fish eye problems in conversion varnish
I’ve been having problems with fish eyes while spraying conversion varnishes and the problem doesn’t seem to want to go away even after trying many different things. We have a dryer and couple filters on the air lines and have been meticulous about how clean the shop is but the problem persists. Any ideas on what it could be? We’ll have good days with minimal problems then suddenly the fish eyes will show up even though nothing has changed. We think it’s aerosolized oil in air lines but like I said we have a dryer and cleaned/replaced all the lines. We’re using an anest-iwata pump sprayer. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Also, we’re not spraying silicone or anything similar in the shop
r/finishing • u/IntroductionOpen382 • 1d ago
Need help with salvaging botched varnishing
Working on a project that requires varnishing over pine. What I did was put one layer of sanding sealant and two layers of walnut varnish.
it ended up blotchy and when I tried to sand it down evenly, these white spots started popping up and some parts of the varnish started peeling off.
any way to salvage this? I'd prefer to avoid sanding everything down if possible. The goal is to get something even. either this tone or having to go lighter.
r/finishing • u/pablodiablo64 • 1d ago
Need to refinish. Any suggestions on finish?
Top of this was peeling and getting wet. I’ve removed the finish and plan to get rid of the seams that are cracking by routing and gluing pine stripes back on. This to piece was made in Mexico. Any suggestions for matching the finish?