Gloss black chest

[Steve Jenkins]

I'm not a real fan of gloss finishes but this lady wanted a gloss black silver chest.
The line down the right side is a reflection off a joint in the wall.
You can see the reflection of the chair in the front and a small cube on the side.
Steve

[David Wilson]

Looking good

[Steve Jenkins]

Top view of the chest
put the bowl on top for reflection
Steve

[Chris Padilla]

That's not wood!! It is just a black plastic case. No sir...I'm not buyin' today!! :D :D

[Jim Becker]

Chris...wait till he tells you what kind of wood it is...

[Steve Jenkins]

well shoot Jim,
now I guess I need to "tell all". That silver chest was actually a brand new beautiful cherry veneer chest made in ,I believe, France. The lady that owns it just really likes gloss black. The scary part of the job was masking off the insides of the drawers that were lined with that special cloth and all divided up into compartments. I sure didn't need to get any finish on them.
At the same time, I made another small three drawer cabinet to store sheet music in that was also the same finish. I made it out of ,sshhhh, mdf. Best stuff around for a solid color finish.
Steve

[Chris Padilla]

Yep, MDF paints up beautifully and you'll be hardpressed to find a flatter more uniform surface made from wood products!

[Mathew Nedeljko]

Uhhh... excuse my ignorance Steve, but would you mind sharing the finishing technique you used to achieve such a high gloss surface?

Thanks in advance.

Mat

[Kevin Gerstenecker]

Nice job on the finish Steve................that black looks like it is a foot deep. Gloss lacquer finishes are really cool when done properly............not really my cup of tea, but they sure look neat. That is a dandy! Thanks for sharing the pic.

[Jim Ketron]

Great Job Steve !!
Looks Like a finish you would see on a Piano.
Cool!
Jim

[Dennis Peacock]

Very, very nice work there Steve.!!!!! Wonderful on the finish. I'm interested in how you got that finish and is it black lacquer?

[Mark Singer]

Unreal finish! Laquer or polyester?

[Steve Jenkins]

I have done this type finish with conventional lacquer and precat lacquer but this one I did with a combination of catalyzed polyurethane and catalyzed lacquer. The silver chest was the fastest because it already had a really nice finish on it. I just wiped it down several times with naptha to remove any furniture polish/wax that may have been on it.

To start from scratch on the mdf one (not shown) I first filled the edges of the mdf with joint compound and sanded the whole thing to 220. Sprayed a black sanding sealer then a clear catalyzed poly sealer and several coats of gloss catalyzed poly, sanding between coats with 320. I used the poly because it has a higher percentage of solids than the lacquer so it fills and builds faster.

When I got things pretty well built up I switched to a black tinted catalyzed lacquer and continued until I had a fully built up finish, just a few more coats.
You know you are finished building when you can sand and have ZERO shiny spots. The shiny spots are below the surface and not getting sanded. Even one little pinprick sized hole will show up like a sore thumb when you polish it.

After spraying I wet sanded the finish to 2000 grit using wet/dry paper and "rub-cut" oil. You can make your own using mineral oil or parafin oil mixed with mineral spirits. I have used plain mineral spirits but it evaporates a bit fast and I've also used plain water but it doesn't stay on the surface as well.
I did the wet sanding by hand with a cork block.
Be sure that when you change grits you completely clean off all the residue from the prior grit and keep your supplies seperated so you don't contaminate a finer grit with coarser residue.

After wet sanding I used a lambswool pad and a low speed buffer and buffed with automotive compound to remove the sanding marks then a new pad and buffed with a much finer "swirlmark remover" to bring it up to the final finish. I have used a regular polisher/buffer that spins at 2500-3000 rpms but the problem with that besides the distinct possibility of burning through the finish is the compounds drying out due to the heat generated.
All the compunding can also be done by hand. It's just faster with a buffer.

A coat of wax and "that's all there is to it".

The main danger when doing this type of finish is sanding through the color on the edges and corners. Major whoops. Also when using catalyzed finishes if you sand through one layer of finish into the next it will show up as looking like a watermark and the only way to fix it is to spray another coat and start again. Using regular lacquer or shellac you don't have that problem because the layers all "melt" into each other as you apply them.

It does require a lot of patience and time but using the buffer is so much faster than the way we used to do it, which is by hand with different grits of pumice and rottenstone.

[Steve Clardy]

Looks like you have a lot of time in the finish alone. Nice job.:)

Steve

[Steve Jenkins]

Looks like you have a lot of time in the finish alone. Nice job.:)

Steve

A whole lot more time in the finish than in making it. Steve