Drafting Table finally finished

[Alan Lightstone]

To everyone who helped me with the finish on my big drafting table, I wanted to extend a heartfelt thank you. The finish on the table top turned out to be far more challenging than I anticipated, and had to be redone multiple times.

The final result, IMHO, I think turned out great.

I've posted it on Lumberjocks, as I just find it far easier to post projects there. If you search there under "Sapele Drafting Table" under projects, you can find pictures of the completed project. Go take a look and please tell me what you think of the finished table.

Thanks especially to Scott, Prashun, Howard, Sheldon, Sam, Rich, Andrew, and I'm sure many helpful others that I'm forgetting.

Alan

[Rich Engelhardt]

Wow! That turned out sweeeeet!
Did you end up sticking w/the Waterlox or did you switch to (IRC, wasn't it)Target?

The way the reflection of the blinds blends in with the top - w/out any trace of "wave" in the reflection is impressive.

Ya done good!

[Alan Lightstone]

Actually, the final solution was to put on several wiped on coats of Waterlox to get the color and chatoyance, followed by 2 coats of dewaxed orange shellac to warm the color up slightly more and provide a barrier coat, followed by 6 coats of sprayed on Target Coatings EM6000.

Then I sanded it up to 3000 grit with Abralon and then, following Scott's suggestion, used Menzerna 2L Pre-Polish to rub it out to the proper (for SWMBO) semi--gloss finish.

The surface feels outstanding. Truly superb, and the Menzerna got me to a consistent semi-gloss. Finally my car detailing days helped out.

Certainly a complicated finishing regimen, but I could safely rub out with it.

To be able to spray it, I actually built a really neat knock-down, explosion proof spray booth. I'm working on submitting it to one of the woodworking magazines, and hopefully will get that published. This added about 3 more months to the project.