finish on a hollow form help ???

[John Nowack]

have a hollow form that I finshed with 3 coats of poly (basic minwax brush on kind) put on three coats sanding in between---didn't turn out so well because of a couple of runs and light scratches showing through from sanding the first two coats (sanded to 400)

Can I now use the 3 step buff system on top of the poly because it is too wet and plastic looking for my taste---I was not sure if you only use the beal buff when wax is your only finish

took me a long time so I don't want to completly ruin it

[Steve Schlumpf]

John - my big question would be what are you looking as far as your final finish? Do you want gloss, semi-gloss, flat, mat? The Beal buffing system will smooth out your final coat - which can make it glossy and by removing all the little bumps and imperfections also makes it very nice to touch.

[Jeff Nicol]

John, It sounds like you may have to sand it back out to almost no finish on it to get rid of any imperfections. Just like a fine paint job on a car anything that is not smooth and scratch free will show through the final buff out. The brush on poly is great for flat surfaces where runs are not a problem, if you still want to use just poly the rattle can sprays work fine. Just put a few light coats on and sand inbetween until you get your desired finish. Also there are many wipe on poly finishes that work wonderfully and you have great control over how the finish turns out. With the buffing setup starting with a coarser tripoli you can buff out a lot of fine scatches even in poly, so start with that and move through the white diamond which will take out the tripoli scratches. With harder finishes like poly and lacquer if the finish is smooth you may not have to use any wax at all. The wax will eventually wear off with handling any way so you should have the best shine you can get before you wax a piece, that way it will look good as the wax is rubbed off over time. Wax also shows finger prints more than just a good finish.

Hope that helps,

Jeff

[Scott Conners]

I find the buffing systems take a finish up to a nice high shine, but don't work very well for leveling a finish. When I have orange peel or runs, I wet sand using a padded abrasive (600-800 grit wet dry with hand held padding or micromesh or 4X steel wool) and then buff. I try to sand till I have an even white dullness to the whole piece and no obvious texture, then the buff makes it glow. If you have marks or witness lines in the first coats that you've sealed in with the final coat, you won't get them out without removing most of the finish. I learned this the hard way, and now tend to use steel wool very lightly in between coats, which makes it much harder to sand through. Make sure you clean the surface well after using steel wool.

[John Nowack]

Steve I would like a glossy finish but right now it just looks artificial to me---I will try to post a pic and see what you think

pic is really bad just snapped a quick shot on the counter---if I decide to buff it should I wait longer than the recommended 24 hour "wait before handling" instructions

it is my wife's valentine's day present so I don't want to mess it up at this point---as you can see from the turq it has already given me problems that required some drastic design changes