by Pappy September 23rd, 2007, Posted in: Woodworking
When we last left off with the workshop stool project I’d completed the legs, crossbars, and seat support. That left the seat and finishing to be done before calling the project complete.
The oak I bought for the seat was too thin, only 3/4 inch. So the first order of business was to cut two matching 12 inch by 12 inch pieces and glue them up to achieve a thicker seat. The very first advice I got from every woodworking community online was that you can never have enough clamps. Apparently, I didn’t listen to this close enough, because I thought 2 clamps (all I have at the moment) would be enough to handle the glue job. They weren’t.
After taking care to choose which side I wanted visible, I doled out a liberal amount of Titebond wood glue, aligned the two pieces, and clamped them down on opposite corners. To start with, this left too much play and the top piece kept floating on the excess glue, and two clamps did not provide enough even pressure across the entire surface to force out the excess glue. Now, in a panic as it was too late to stop, I pulled the bench vise off and used it to clamp down a third corner, which did help enough for me to be able to keep the two pieces lined up right and squeeze out much of the excess. Then I covered the piece with a shop rag to keep it from getting marred and placed 20 pounds of cinder block on the 4th corner.
Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy, and unfortunately it showed in the results. The three clamped corners formed a nice tight seal, while the fourth left about a 1/16 inch gap, with the dried glue forming a sort of wedge between the pieces. I’d have included a picture, but my crap-o-matic $10 digital camera won’t capture that kind of detail no matter how well I light it or how close I get…
It then bears repeating: you can never have enough clamps. In hindsight I would have placed clamps on the corners, in the middle, plus a clamp over each of the edges to guarantee proper alignment.
“Red Four, this is Red Leader. You need more clamps.”
“Cap’n, I don’t think the dilithium crystals in the warp core matrix can handle the stress: we just don’t have enough clamps.”
Oh well, live and learn I guess. Next I used Minwax Wood Filler to fill the holes inside the gap where air pockets had been. Using a 1/2 inch round-over bit, the next task was to route all the edges of the seat to give it a nice smooth top that wouldn’t poke me in the arse. A full course of sanding, from 80 grit, 100, 150, and then 220 and the seat piece is finished.
Attaching the seat was an easy affair. A little alignment and 5 woodscrews later and construction is done.
E gads! It was right about this point that I realized I should have done all the stain and finish work prior to buttoning it all up. I was so concerned that I wouldn’t get all the angles lined up right I didn’t even think about the order of putting it all together. Fortunately, the stool design is open enough I can reach everything with a brush without too much trouble.
The finishing pattern was as follows: single coat of Minwax Golden Oak stain, one very thin coat Minwax Polyurethane High Gloss, no sanding between this and a second coat of polyurethane (see note below), very light sand with 380 grit, and a final coat of polyurethane. Although the Minwax guide recommends sanding polyurethane between each coat, I’ve read that with polyurethane it is very easy to sand through the first layer and into the stain beneath. If this happens, the only way to fix it is to sand off all the stain and finish and start over. Instead, it’s recommended to apply a thinner than normal first coat and to sand only after the second and successive coats.
So, while enjoying my morning coffee this morning and waiting for the second coat to dry, I came across an interesting tip I wish I’d known about a few hours earlier. Wood magazine has a special issue out this month called “215 Fixes for Common Woodworking Mistakes“, and on pages 110-111 they have an excellent article on grain fillers. I never knew such a thing existed. With open grained woods, such as oak, ash, mahogany, and walnut, it is impossible to get that glass-smooth surface with just stain and topcoat. Run your fingers across one of these woods and you’ll feel the pits created by open pores and channels in the wood fiber. Grain filler, a mixture of solvent with silica, is designed to level up these pits and give you a surface worth bragging about.
Although I came across this information too late to use it this time around, you better believe I’ll be trying it out the next time I work with oak.
Well the only thing left to do is nail the steel furniture feet onto the legs - close enough that for the purposes of the blog it’s all complete. Hindsight is a great teacher and I definitely learned more of what to do and what not to do. Thank you to everyone that gave their advice, sent me emails telling me I was doing it all wrong , and of course the authors of the million or so articles I’ve read in the last few weeks.
Stay tuned, cause Pappy’s gonna be back soon with another project and I’ll need lots of correction and ass-kicking by wiser and more experienced folks than I.
Count on it. :)
