Finishing

Wood Finishing Techniques and Advice

Proper spray gun pressure is quick, easy

Tuesday, 04 November 2008 17:10

If you run your spray gun off a compressor, you know you have an infinite range of pressure you can use. Too little pressure, however, and you don’t get the best atomization — you get orange peel. Too much pressure, and you waste material because of excessive bounce-back.

Toss it out if you’re feeling any doubt

Friday, 03 October 2008 20:16

When you go into a supermarket, you can look at the food containers and find a sell-by date. But when finishers shop for finishing materials, we can only find the date the materials were manufactured, and we never see a shelf life or an expiration date marked on the labels.

Understanding solvents is family affair

Tuesday, 30 September 2008 00:00

Solvents are difficult to understand because they all look alike in the can. To make sense of them, and especially to understand lacquer thinner, which is the most important solvent for fast-drying finishes, it helps to organize the solvents into families.

Finishing both sides is warped thinking

Tuesday, 05 August 2008 20:05

Bob Flexner It’s a widespread myth among woodworkers and finishers that to prevent warping it’s necessary to balance moisture-vapor exchange by finishing both sides of wood.