pre-finishing: taping vs sticking dominos in

[Bruce Lowekamp]

I'm building a pair of end table that have the stretchers set back from the legs and joined with dominos. This seemed like a good opportunity to pre-finish pieces since otherwise I'll wind up with squeeze out in all these corners. I had been planning on taping over the domino mortises but now I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to stick in some dominos just a bit, spray around them, and then pull them out once it's dry to the touch. (Obviously I wouldn't be able to use the dominos for any other purpose again). I think taping would be OK too, especially since the back side from the tenon won't be visible, so I don't need to worry about taping a little bit too far back as long as I cover up the mortise. But I've never sprayed laquer onto painter's tape before, so don't know if I'll have issues there.

The tables are cherry with BLO applied (and cured enough now). Will be using EM6000 (for the top I'm going to use sealer on it just to level it a bit better.)

Also, for pre-finishing should one coat be enough so squeeze-out doesn't cause problems? I'm thinking of one coat of gloss and then two coats of semi after assembly.

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Bruce

[Jim Becker]

Since Dominos tend to fit pretty snugly, I see no reason why you cannot do this other than they can sometimes be a challenge to unseat even when inserted "dry". I had to separate a piece yesterday and it took a few substantial whacks from a mallet to the end of the workpiece while holding the 10mm domino in vice grips to do the deed!

As to one coat or not...it really depends upon what it looks and feels like after you shoot that coat and it drys for a bit. Your eyes and hands will be your guide...

[Steve Jenkins]

Put them in just enough to stick and you’ll be fine

[Bill Carey]

Hey Bruce - since finishing is my least favorite thing to do, I pre-finish everything to the final coat of wipe on or whatever. (not using a sprayer).

I've found that backer rod works great, is cheap, and disposable. And comes in sizes up to at least 1 1/2".

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[Bruce Lowekamp]

Thanks for the suggestions. I wound up cutting some dominoes in half (mostly so I wouldn’t accidentally try to use them later) and sticking them in just enough to hold. Worked beautifully, honestly much much neater than the parts I had to mask off. Even stuck in just a bit I still had to get the pliers with a few to get them out, though was still a lot easier than breaking it down after the dry fits I did for the parts that needed to be cut to fit.

I did two coats of gloss prefinishing. Honestly I managed to glue it up without much squeeze out, but what did happen seemed to wipe up perfectly. I still have more to learn about my HVLP sprayer, but overall was happy with this effort.

Bruce