Glue In QSWO Pores

[Frank Conway]

Did my first glue up (Titebond III) for a mission style end table top this weekend. Came out great and perfectly flat. The part where a screwed up (I think) is that I wiped the glue with a wet rag and it spread it around. I got it off the best I could. Now that I've sanded the surface, I can still see some glue residue in the pores. I've since read some threads about this and will do it differently next time.

Not much I can do about it at this point, but I was wondering if there was a finish I could apply to possibly minimize problems with it? Would applying past filler help mitigate this? I am pretty open to finishes at this point, and am open to any suggestions. Thanks in advance.

Frank

[Steve Schoene]

Pigmented pore filler or a pigmented stain could quite likely reduce any impact once you have removed all glue on the surface, as you surmise. You would want to do some finish experiments on scrap anyway so duplicate the glue effect on some scrap and see how it works on your particular wood.

On a table top I would also think you could sand a bit deeper with no one being the wiser. You could drop back to 80 or 100 grit taking care not to concentrate only on the area with glue. Before you graduate to finer grits use a moderately large sanding block to ensure you are keeping the surface smooth and haven't sanded in a dip or wave. Then take the surface back to 220 grit.

[Frank Conway]

Thanks for the reply, Steve. I may try the filler on a scrap piece (I'll spread glue on it and wipe it off to get in the pores to duplicate what I have). I think it would be quite a bit of sanding to get down.Where the white oak is ring porous, it creates small "troughs" in the surface of the wood and the dried glue is in these. I would think you'd have to sand the whole surface down the depth of the ring pores (~.010" maybe). If I had a better sander, maybe, but all I have is a RO sander. I did sand with 150 so far and it seems like taking it down to the level of the glue would be quite a job.

[Steve Schoene]

I think the pigmented filler or stain is likely to work, but your experiments will tell you the answer.

If it doesn't work I wouldn't think one hundredth of an inch woud be a lot, but I actually use very little sandpaper. A sharp smoothing plane would deal with that in short order.

[Frank Conway]

Thanks Steve. I am considering using a smoother on it, but i'm not 100% comfortable with my skills with the plane. I've used it on scraps with good results. I'm a bit skiddish about trying it on a "real" project, especially one that seems to be coming out decently. I suppose at the end of the day, its only wood and I can start over if I screw it up.

[Jerry Olexa]

When I encountered that, I did as Steve said: Sand more aggressively in that one area and then blend in w higher numbered sandpaper. If that fails, you can blend w some diluted dye or even later, a glaze over your finishing...