Cleaning Up Overspray

[Jerry Bittner]

I'm relatively new to this section of SMC so bear with me on what is probably a "you should know that" question.

Just finished a coffee table and when moving it into the room, lo and behold we scratched the top. The piece is stained and finished with a water based polyurethane varnish. I cleaned the spot and resprayed the top with the spray cans varnish rather than taking it back into the shop and redoing it with my HVLP.

In any event, after a couple of applicationso the spray cans, I redid one area again becasue it wa a little light but got over spray on the area next to it. What's the best way of rubbing that out. I'm afraid that if I use 339 grit paper, I will knock off the high gloss finish.

Any way of buffing it out and with what?

Thanks.

[Tim Sproul]

Start with the highest grit abrasive you use for polishing.....see how it does. If it isn't working, go one level more coarse. Keep repeating until you find the least coarse grit that removes your problem. After removing the problem, work your way back up in grits to get back the gloss polish.

I use Menzerna polishes for gloss with different materials - lambswool, cotton, etc. The synthetic steel wools can also be used - such as the white colored ones but my experience is that you might need to go all the way down to p800 or p400 or so abrasive paper.....I'd sand very lightly by hand with a hard foam or cork backer. Remember that once you start building the gloss back, treat the entire surface or you'll end up with a different level of gloss at the area you work.