General finishes high performance - finishing the finish

[Alan Kalker]

I am wondering what people using General finishes high performance spray are doing, if anything, after their last coat is dry. I’ve been using the satin finish. While it comes out pretty good it is never as perfect as I would like it. I would like it glass smooth when I am done and not glossy but the same level of gloss I get if
I just stopped after the final coat.
Before finishing, I sand to 220 grit then raise the grain and sand with 400 grit sandpaper. I often apply a 1lb sealer coat of shellac. Wait at least 2 hrs, sand again with 400 grit paper and get off all the dust before applying another layer. I usually apply 3 coats.
To get it glass smooth I will wait a few days then sand gently with 400 grit paper followed by 800, 1200, 2000 then 2500 grit paper to polish. But then the finish is more dull than I’d like. Using the gloss finish did not make a difference. I seem to have to trade between a “pretty good” but still slightly rough finish vs glass smooth but a bit dull.
Thoughts?

[Jeff Roltgen]

Never did anything very significant to a final coat after cured. When I first opened shop around 2007, I did back-up finishing on many dining table / chair sets for a local Unpainted Furniture store, who was a distributor for GF products, so many gallons of HP Satin used.

1> Everything we sprayed with it got a quick buff with lunch-bag type paper after final coat. I've got a roll of unwaxed butcher paper that I now use, and I use it on every WB finish since learning that trick. Knocks off the occasional bubble or dust spec, which are inevitable. Almost any smooth white piece of paper will do the trick.

2> When struggling towards that glass smooth finish on a dresser top, I did resort to thinning that last coat all the way up to 10% max, just to assure as smooth a layout as possible. They also sell an extender to slow drying and encourage better leveling.

3> We also tried and had reasonably good results with Crystal-Lac water-based grain filler in between coats as a means to reaching that fully-filled pore, "glass smooth" look.
Store owner was trying to conserve the expensive topcoat material (He'd have heart palpitations if he saw it's now $100 a gallon!). Good enough results that, to this day, I've always got a can of Crystal-Lac grain filler on the shelf. Never met a finish it didn't get along with.

General Finishes only states that more than 3 coats of HP does not increase durability, but they do not warn off it, like so many other formulations now limiting to 4mils total dry thickness. Between myself and those the store owner was finishing, it wasn't unusual to hit 4-5 coats before we felt a table was presentable to the client, with a nice, glass smooth finish. Often, the table tops were rubberwood, which is highly porous and required a lot of coats, filler and sanding. Once you hit coat 2-3, you'd be amazed how much you can grind away with a R/O and 220-320 to smooth before the next coat.

Again, no wet sanding or rubbing out, just off the gun for that final look, maybe thinned a bit extra for that final shot at "perfection".

jeff

[John TenEyck]

Similar to Jeff, I've never felt, or seen, the need to rub out GF's High Performance. It looks and feels great right off the gun for me. But if I did, I'd use soapy water or paste wax and brass wool or a corresponding synthetic pad to give it a glass smooth surface with a satin sheen. If it has to be the exact same sheen, then you are going to have to evaluate which grit gives you that.

There's no need to, and good reason not to, sand above about 180 grit prior to finishing. If you want a glass smooth finish then use a pore filler. I've had good results with AquaCoat grain filler. If you just want it smooth then forget the grain filler. 180 grit works fine in both cases.

John

[Alan Kalker]

Thanks. I ended up using the folded brown paper bag method. While it is not glass smooth, it left a very acceptable finish. And it was easy. And the grocery bag was free : ))