Painted wood

[Darren Ramey]

I am new to this whole furniture building thing. I have had the itch to get in to it, and have some of the tools as I am a floor guy by trade so what the hell. My first project is computer/recording studio table. I have several other projects in mind though, most of them are practice for the upcoming kitchen cabinet remodel :).

So back to the desk. A lot of it is birch plywood. There is an oak band around the outside edge of the top of the table (the thought I had was that the oak would be a bit more ding resistant), the top is going to be cork. It is actually cork flooring, but I think it will make a beautiful table top.

I want to paint the wood black. I am looking for a smooth satin finish, without any wood grain peeking through. I tried latex primer and that didn't work out so well. I cant sand it. It just gums up and makes a mess. I tried Bondo, but it wont fill in anything as fine as the grain marks. I could have continued trying things until something worked, but decided to save myself some time and ask. I realize I am in for a lot of sanding. I just need to know what to use to fill in the pores so that I can start.

Also, what kind of paint should I use for something like this?

Thanks

[Scott Holmes]

Oak is indeed hard and tough, it is a not the best choice for painting. Grain is going to give you fits. Easier solution would be birch, poplar or maple. All will fill and paint to a smooth flat finish.

As for Paint latex is too soft and flexible (as you noticed when you tries to sand it) for furniture. It also tends to block (stick to stuff set on it). Use an alkyd or acrlic paint oil based are the most durable and don't need a top coat they are very durable.

Milk paint is another option depending on the finial look and color you want to achieve.

If you have already built it with oak use a pore filler then sand it back flat and smooth. Don't use wood putty it doesn't dry hard.

[Charlie Stone]

If it is in part practice for an upcoming cabinet project, you may want to try out some dyes mixed in with other forms of finish. Black shellac is an amazing and classic oriental finish. Have you ever looked at the black mirror finish on Japaneses wood work? Or on a piano?
Also, as far as the sanding goes, I would recommend picking up a smoothing plane (even the $30 one form HomeDepot, will get the job done) that should clean off most of the paint without having to deal with sanding. If you are not used to using hand planes, the key is SHARP blades. By sharp, I mean mirror finish on the cutting edge. There is a hell of a learning curve with planes and sharpening, and being a construction convert myself, what I thought I knew about tools and wood was a whole different world. Where a 1/16 of an inch used to be close enough, is now a massive thing as I dip in to the world of thousands of an inch.
If you are going to go the hand plane route, I would recommend starting with Scary Sharp (http://www.woodworkstuff.net/scary.html) as a way to get your feet wet without a major investment up front in oil/water stones or grinders. I also recommend picking up a honing guide for sharpening chisels and plane blades. But that's a whole other can of worms.