Disaster strikes - Need advice

[John Hart]

Hi all,
I made this Pink Myrtle bowl a week or so ago and was working on the finish. I got it to the point of taking it off the lathe yesterday and was going through parting. Unfortunately, in the early stages of parting, the Gorilla Glue gave out between the bowl and the tenon and the bowl went flying. Now I have all these gouges and scrapes on the bowl. Some are completely through the several layers of finish, some are superficial.

My question is: Can I patch this and buff...or do I need to completely refinish? The finish is clear gloss spray lacquer.

Thanks much!!

[Chris Barton]

Good Morning John,

I had a very similar incident recently except, what happened in my case was that I got in too much of a rush and polished a piece with the Beal system a little too soon. What resulted was areas of lacquer that had been buffed into ugly gray smears and other areas completely devoid of lacquer. I thought I could sand out the smears and put a few additional coats of lacquer and solve the problem. Long story short, my final solution was to get the can of acetone out and just strip the piece and start over with the finish.

Good Luck,

[Michael Stafford]

John do you have a way to mount the bowl using the top end so that you can make repairs to the underlying surface if necessary? If so you could remount and center a new block with some super glue and make all the repairs needed. Then with one sharp rap knock the glue block off and finish the bottom. Impossible to say what needs to be done from your pictures and descriptions but it is a very nice piece of wood and worth salvaging IMHO. A few of us were chatting about this the other night and some would say, "It is only wood". I try to salvage every piece and I guess I have the wrinkles to show for it....

[Jim Ketron]

John I have had something similar happen to me:o remounting would be the easiest way to fix it on the lathe. But I think you will find that you will end up taking most of the finish down to repair it! by the time you sand down the effected area, you will have to get wider with each successive grit to get rid of the previous grits sanding scratches, or at least this is how I do it.
Also if you have dented the wood fibers you can soak that area with some warm water it works good as long as they are not torn fibers.;)

[Travis Stinson]

John, I would try to hand sand the areas out and blend in with the rest. Then build them back up with the spray lacquer. A bit of work involved, but worth it, that's a very nice piece.;)

[Andy Hoyt]

I'd be very surprised to hear that there are no dings or dents - that's what I always end up with.

I usually take all finish off and fix what needs fixing. Then I re-finish the piece. I've found that in the long run this actually saves time and I don't have to worry about matching and blending.

[Carole Valentine]

John, what a shame! I would strip it, steam any dents, hand sand it and re-apply finish. That's assuming that there are no actual gouges that have cut the fibers deeply. It's definitely worth the effort to save it!

[Keith Burns]

John, I can't offer any advice except it is worth saving. It is a great piece.

[John Hart]

Well...thanks for all the input! looks like I might as well rig it up and start over. The patch method just sounds too iffy to bother with. I'll give it a go and post my results. Thanks everyone.:)

[Mike Ramsey]

John, I could send you a few pieces with dings in them if you would
like to practice first :D .

[John Hart]

John, I could send you a few pieces with dings in them if you would
like to practice first :D .

Hey, Fix your own Stuff Mike!!!!:D :D Oh hey...by the way...your PM box is full and I can't send you anything. Cleaning day!:) ;)