Blotchy stain
When your stain is blotchy, for whatever reason, in most cases you can blend it in by hand sanding with 600 grit sandpaper before you apply the next coat. I use Abranet brand 600 grit. Does not clog easily and works great.
Mistakes happen on every project. They can be disheartening on occasion where you can’t recover, but I look at them as opportunities for better design. Here’s an example. I discovered an unforeseen problem while working on a prototype portable altar. The top portion tilts up allowing you to open the wings on the altar below,…
I bought a #4 smoother with the intent of using it for final prep before finishing, i.e. eliminating the need for sanding. After several projects (2 vanities, medicine cabinet doors, shaker table, etc.) I’ve come to realize that sanding is still absolutely necessary. My smoother and/or hand scraper inevitably leaves chatter marks that are visible…
Ever have to trim 1/16″ or 1/8″ from end grain but the piece won’t fit your shooting board, and the table saw is out of the question? I had this problem on the morning bar doors below where I had to flush trim the ends of the book matched ash (unstained in the photo). So…
The fence of a router table prevents you from running a bead on an inside curve. I did some research online and found one guy that tapped his router base, added a pin (a bolt), and ran it hand held. Yikes! So I came up with a way to do this much more safely by…
On a recent project I worked with a lot of 1/2″ material. Most hardware is intended for 3/4″ stock. So the obvious problem is that most of the screws supplied were too long. Now you can buy shorter 1/2″ screws, but when you mortise your hinges, 1/2″ screws are still too long. So what do…
I remember a while back about how I was puzzled on how period furniture had parts of the inlay that were NOT stained dark, while the rest of the inlay and the furniture itself appeared to have a dark stain. How was that done? After some investigation on the internet and asking around, the answer…