Filling gaps and pin holes in white oak

[mark mcfarlane]

Right angle joints are hard to do by hand, but I wouldn't want to risk sucking finish into my ROS. I vote by hand, carefully, unless you have a way to shield your sander. And, yeah, same grit as you last used.

John

John, I could use a Festool ROS but turn off the vacuum. Or if I have the right paper grit I could use an old Bosch ROS that has been in a drawer for years...

Edit: My Festool paper fits my old Bosch 3283, and the holes don't align so I can't suck up anything... I keep the Bosch around to loan to other people

[johnny means]

I've been using an ROS to sand frame and panel constructions for 20 years. Every cabinet maker I've ever worked with does the same. I also use it to sand between coats of finish. So does every finisher i know. I can't imagine anyone makes a ROS without thinking it might be used to sand finishes.

[Jim Morgan]

Mark, there was a recent thread on the finishing forum "Filling Nail Holes or Minor Imperfections." The first post has a link to a YouTube video that you might find helpful.

[mark mcfarlane]

I've been using an ROS to sand frame and panel constructions for 20 years. Every cabinet maker I've ever worked with does the same. I also use it to sand between coats of finish. So does every finisher i know. I can't imagine anyone makes a ROS without thinking it might be used to sand finishes.

Johnny, you may have messed the gist of what we were talking about: sanding the finish with a ROS while the finish is wet, to create a slurry of finish and saw dust to fill minor imperfections.

[mark mcfarlane]

Mark, there was a recent thread on the finishing forum "Filling Nail Holes or Minor Imperfections." The first post has a link to a YouTube video that you might find helpful.

Thanks James, I found it: https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....-Imperfections

[Jim Tobias]

Mark
Timbermate has a "white oak" filler now. I have not used it specifically, but I have used many of their other water based fillers. They are very easy to use and , if necessary, you can tweak the shade/color with transtint.
Just a thought.

Jim

[Richard Coers]

It's been my experience, that applying oil to an open joint like that only magnifies the problem. The oil soaks into the end grain and makes it darker. Sanding a slurry with an oil finish is okay for filling wood pores, it does not work for filling cracks. The slurry will continue to ooze to the bottom of the crack before drying. It'll take a month to fill that big crack with oil and sanding slurry.

[al heitz]

For small holes or gaps I sometimes add a drop or two of shellac or vanish to fine sawdust from the wood you are using and use that for a filler. It will match up fairly well.

[Jim Becker]

Honestly, I almost never fill the pin holes from 23 gage pins. The finish tends to deal with that, but if necessary, I'd fill them after the first coat of final top coats is applied with an appropriately colored stick and then complete the finish. The material used must be compatible with the finish relative to adhesion for obvious reasons.

[Frank Pratt]

For small holes or gaps I sometimes add a drop or two of shellac or vanish to fine sawdust from the wood you are using and use that for a filler. It will match up fairly well.

That's what I've done on trim work & I think it matches better than mixing sawdust with glue. Filling those gaps with epoxy will just accentuate them because it will be much darker than the wood.

[mark mcfarlane]

Thanks everyone for the help. The scurry approach with a ROS didn't work for me. Maybe too thick a coat of Arm-R-Seal, maybe not enough patience,... I was able to mostly fill in the two largest joints with slivers of the same wood, using CA and accelerant. The other gaps were too small to get anything into.

Some wax crayons seem to be doing the trick on the smaller gaps. Tape both sides, rub in the crayons, remove tape and rub off with a cloth.

I'm going to open a new post in the finishing forum on crayon and stain pen choices.

Edit: Here's an 'after pic' of the same joint with two coats a small sliver of QSWO, 2 coats of Arm-R-Seal, then some Varathane filler crayon applied. I still have some work on mixing the right crayons to get the color I want. I'm melting a few drops, mix with a nail, knead with my fingers, and apply.

IMG_3905.jpg

Thanks again to everyone for sharing your ideas.

Cheers,

Mark

[Jeff Ramsey]

With Timber Mate I found their suggestion to use a few drops of warm water to be good. But, it still won't take stain at the same rate as the surrounding material.

[Frank Pratt]

The repair looks very good.

[Jim Dwight]

I'm too late to help the OP but I agree his repairs look good. I also use waxed crayons and have had good luck hiding trim head screw holes in stair treads and railings with them. But my most recent success was with ZAR (at least I think that was the brand) wood filler. I bought a tub of it when I was refinishing a fairly small area of oak flooring, one hallway sized space and a small bedroom. I few large cracks had appeared in the flooring, maybe 1/8 wide at the widest. I put the putty in, let it dry, and then sanded the floor with the final grit. The cracks are nearly invisible. I later tried it under stain when I made a bed. My mortise and tenon joints were not great and I wanted to fill some small gaps. The same putty worked well. I was surprised that it doesn't shrink much and took finish well - but I was using tinted poly which lays on the surface so perhaps I should not have been surprised.

[Jim Tobias]

With the TimberMate, I usually use mix in dye(Transtint) to color it pretty exact before filling with it. Then just finish and topcoat as normal.
Jim