Not all the things I build are colored in the same manner. How I want it to look tells me what to do..This last clock I filled up a large pan and submerged all the pieces for a while.  And to get a different texture on different places I just set the pieces out without drying off any of the stain. Then after they dried I used some 220 and sanded off the top edges to make it look like it had been dusted for many years. And I think this picture was when I first started sanding off the edges so the end piece got even more finish removed.

   Then on some pieces after a coat of clear has dried I go back with an air brush or my finger and tint the edges with a different color or with many different colors.

 So not every one needs an air brush or a joiner if they think their table saw will do the same thing??  Not every body skins a rabbit the same way.

Edited April 11, 20206 yr by Smallpatch

Thanks, Jesse. In comparison to your work, my stuff is down right bland. Like you, I don't buy exotics for color. Usually, the natural color of the woods I use is sufficient. There are times when stains are used but, extremely rarely. With mesquite, there's usually enough variation to provide some visual interest. 

 

I do Have band saw.

I do Have band saw. I  love some of the effects the airbrush produces.. I also paint and have many times thought about getting one  now I guess gonna have to give it a whirl.

Great on the band saw.. It will save lots of hours of labor...Most women female ladies knows about labor. I would think a waitress in a restaurant probably works harder than any three men...

 I will suggest after you cut the pieces out of your picture to mark the back sides of all the pieces.. It will save grinding away on the wrong side of a piece only to find you were grinding the back side instead of the right side....The very good reason I now mark the back sides...With the picture shaded you can see almost all the pieces are a different height and the ones that don't pertain to the horses have been shortened the most. I start with the maple being just over an inch thick and some pieces have been shortened to maybe 3/8's of an inch tall. Get wild in the variations in heights. I have found its better go grind both pieces that touch each other farther down and it makes it harder to see the picture is actually individual pieces.

  After I get all pieces ground some what I take a picture of it and post it so I can see where more work needs to be done...Like on the ginger bread around the horses it seems like I missed  lots of areas...I had to bring up some horses pictures to actually see what it was I was trying to do...

 Only cut the top side off the wood with the band saw. This way all the bottoms will still be on the bottom and will mate up with each other. Yes there will be lots of band saw marks to sand off but that's how  to keep all the pieces matched up with each other.

  I use a 1" x 42" belt-disk sander for about half of all the shaping of the pieces. And if you only have one of those then the 36 grit is used more than a fine grade belt. I have two so the other belt is an 80 grit. I also use an electric hand held sander, the old type, and I turn it up side down laying on a rubber pad and holding it with one hand upside down I sand most all the pieces smooth. I doubt if anyone is smart enough to do this but me...but it sure saves lots of elbow grease...I also use a 9" oscillating drum sander to do the start of the shaping along with the 1 x 42" belt.

   The more ultra small areas I use my Dremel but no Dremel bits..Wood Carvers Supply, Inc in Florida has all the very long lasting bits I use every day and they are hard to wear out..And no need to order a set of any of the bits for some of the set you will never use so a waste of money. I can give you some numbers of the bits I like to use but do look up their site and look over their stuff. I started doing this carving thing in 2016 and swore up and down I would never do anything flat anymore...I have built flat things since I was in high school, 50 to 54 and the longer it went the more boring it became..Lots of years experience but some kind of carving is what I like.

  Do be careful with the band saw for slicing off small parts is also time to be using push sticks and things to keep the piece to be cut against the fence all the time. Just because its small don't over look the danger. And remember throw away the top side of each piece being cut down.

  It only takes from 20 to 50 lbs of pressure for an air brush. An older compressor that has a separate motor with a belt between the motor and the pump is the longest lasting and the quietest sound you can get. There are lots of older 20 gallon tank and pumps out there.. And you need to invest in an air regulator and water trap to go in line before it gets to the air brush.. .

   The air brush will do wonders with you painting ability.

Oh and don't forget if you have a Hobby Lobby you can get the coupon that will give you 40% off of any one item per day. If you don't have one close you could order on line but do check around for good prices.

  Do you have the ability to edge glue pieces of wood together for bigger projects. If so I can show you how I put the frames around the horses and the rooster and a few other things I made.

  Later

Hey Jess, you could teach classes in this stuff!

When you were doing the roosters, what was the clean up routine for the airbrush?  I can imagine that cleaning it each time between colors that you might have had almost as much time cleaning as you did carving?  Even using water base dyes and such, you had to clean it between colors - right?

 

The two cars that I painted, the Pontiac was done at school where they had an automatic gun cleaner.  Rinse the can out, pop it all in the cleaner, close the lid and go home.  Plus all the color went on at one time (several coats) and all the clear went on like that also.

The Plymouth, though, I did at home.   Using oil base paint.  24 hours between coats minimum.  That meant cleaning out the gun after each coat, 30-45 minutes minimum cleaning the gun after each coat.  3-4 coats of white and 3-4 coats of black.  And the interior was done separately from the exterior.  All the clear went on the same morning, so there was that.  But - a lot of time spent cleaning the gun.

 

Is it comparable to that for your projects?

Before I built this last shop I went back and remember how hard it was cleaning a paint gun..Lacquer thinner in 1950's I bought a 55 gallon drum at a time but they only put 54 gallons in the drum and it was less than 1.00 a gallon. But now I buy one gallon at a time and the last was 12.95...Wally World has it cheaper than anyone.

   But acrylic needs water and the air brush , well if you can call it a tank, I would say the tank holds about 6 or 7 thimbles full. I cover the bottom of the bottle, tank, with a fraction of an oz. of acrylic paint, fill the bottle almost full of H-2-0 and if I am fixin to spray a frame for maws  stained thingys , that amount will change the color of the wood  but you have to take in to account I don't waste any extra wood on those frames... So Cal your question I had already started changing my ways some time ago..plus the printers ink if I am wanting a bright bold color also uses water as the thinner so my retirement money based on when I retired from the fire dept in Jan.1980 still don't go very far but at least I don't have to use two or three months worth of retirement money to be able to color my wood working projects.

  When I worked at the furniture store after I got out of high school for a few years  lots of deliveries went many miles away from the store.  Occasionally we would find a small piece of lacquered furniture missing, maybe just a very small piece but it would be showing big time. We couldn't take that in to their house looking like that so kinda non (sholount) one of us would reach down and get a blade of grass or something growing and some dirt and mix up some stain and quickly rub on the eyesore......And sometimes I had to go back to that house with my touch up kit and repair the damaged area while they were smiling down my collar. And sometimes the quick fix solved the problem!!! One touch up kit and three guys using it so it always stayed at the store....

I have never heard of an automatic gun cleaner. I used to use a regular paint gun but I had about 3.5 feet of air hose and fluid hose going to a 2 quart cup I could pressurize with different pressure and this is what I used for all the clear gloss lacquer I sprayed.. but all I ever ran through the gun was gloss so there was no sand included..then if a semi gloss or satin finish was needed as the final coat it went on the project with the one quart cup. I never cleaned the 2 quart cup or changed the liquid inside the cup. Use to they sold a flat lacquer along with the satin and the semi-gloss and the gloss but sometime down the road they stopped selling the flat....Oh yea, the automatic gun cleaner, I bet that machine used a few bucks worth of thinner, wow...Any colors and all other clear lacquers I used the regular 1 quart cup and it was a job getting the gun and cup completely clean and ready for the next job....This had to be cleaned right after I used it or else it took much more thinner.

  To continue with the air brush.. when not in use I store it with clear lacquer thinner in the bottle. acrylic being water might rust some parts of the air brush so I don't take the chance. I had two air brushes and one got tripped over an fell to the floor... Now I use my table saw fence lock down lever as a post and I make a loop in the small air hose supplied with the brush and anchor the brush on to the lever.. Thinking is, if the brush hits the floor so will the table saw get flipped over.... Hey, I try to cover my previous miss-haps.

  Should I wonder if distilled water would make the finishes any clearer than old regular tap city water????something else to think about?

  I actually use to sell an air operated paint shaker and I still have one and I use it often.

... just thinking if it were electric would it still be working...

  

Lissa, have I helped you or??

I forgot ,,,,after the acrylic dries for a day or so, rattle cans of lacquer can cover it all so it will look like someone knew what they were doing....but if you do the rattle can too quick you will get little air bubbles.Just make sue things are dry first......Then keep the project out of the house for a few days to let the odor go away....