3/4 ash, FD #3 Polar Blades throughout. Red food dye on the Rose, rattle can poly after staining.

I'm having issues with the finish, the wood soaked up the poly fast. The picture is with 4 coats of poly and there were areas where I couldn't get enough spay on to get a good surface coat.

Finishing fretwork has some unique problems, anyone care to chime in?

 

That IS nice!!

1 hour ago, Wichman3 said:

I'm having issues with the finish, the wood soaked up the poly fast. The picture is with 4 coats of poly and there were areas where I couldn't get enough spay on to get a good surface coat.

Finishing fretwork has some unique problems, anyone care to chime in?

AWESOME Wich!!  Love it!

 

As for the finish, e.g.rapid absorption of the poly, might try an initial coat of rattle can shellac prior to the spray poly. Shellac will act as a seal coat. Just my $.02. I'm not a finish expert, never played one on TV nor slept in a Holiday Inn for years.

That really is a nice piece, well done!

Beautiful piece Wich.  Outside of the suggestion Dave gave with the shellac, I would have to defer to @Smallpatch as he does a heap of scrolling.  I think he uses a lot of spray lacquer...

Yep, I sure do.  I just now finished this new plunger for the soap dispenser at the kitchen sink. Mostly lacquer was used. I couldn't buy just a new plunger thingy and the price for a new soap dispense made me believe I was buying a new counter top along with a new sink and soap thing too and now this piece of maple will have to do me . Whooo boy, prices have gone out through the top end of my little brain to ever comprehend. 

  I bought never found the right sized curved drill bit for the little plastic tube to slide in to.

 

 

And since I do most  of the dish washing I wanted something pretty!!!!!!

 

So, Smallpatch; when you are finishing your scrollsaw jewelry boxes, how do you get the finish, evenly, in the bottom of the deep recesses?

 

Wichita the jewelry box and all my carving is done the same way. All the pieces are scroll sawed in to smaller pieces so I can stain each piece the colors I am wanting to use then spray as many coats of lacquer as needed to make a nice smooth finish on each one before  I glue all the pieces back on to a backer board the same size as that project started out being..

  Take a look at my pictures under Smallpatch. Somewhere through all that mess maybe you will start to understand my wild way of ending up with something I might be proud of.

  It looks to me like you are starting to put the finishing coats on where the wood is still way to course. The first thing is to sand things very smooth...I use small 1/8" shaft diamond bits with the Dremel to make the wood real smooth in and around the carving pieces.  Also if you are using a soft wood it will be almost impossible  to get a smooth finish.. I put about ten sprayed on coats of lacquer using a rattle can of lacquer from Walmart, Rustoleum and in between coats if it feels ruff I use 320 sand paper after each coat is dry to the touch. Then wipe off any dust or blow it off with air and a dry fine bristle brush. 

I did make and finish these frames using regular 2x4 studs this week but the stain was applied using the air brush so I would not get any blotching. The 3 finished frames I had to match some furniture the guy had for the reason I used the air brush.

 

If you will keep sanding after each coat of lacquer you can end up with a smooth finish on your project you are showing.

  Smallpatch

I don't have room for a work table so the table saw is great for all the building and finishing unless out side is the right temp for spraying.

Wichita, since you haven't let me know if you found my Gallery pictures click on Smallpatch in the Gallery section and maybe it will help with the question you asked?

     I looked at your gallery pictures before I asked about the deep recesses in the jewelry boxes, hoping that you would respond to the thick (3/4 to 4/4) fretwork that I am doing with the "rose with a name" pieces. It is impractical (to say the least) to sand each coat of finish, so I will be giving up on using poly. It the current world of finishing, Lacquer is a catchall for a hard surface coating that may or may not contain; shellac, polyurethane, nitrocellulose acrylic, enamel, epoxy, and/or other ingredients and/or may require sanding between coats.

      I will probably switch to shellac as it does not require sanding between coats. My concern about shellac is it's tendency to change the color of the wood and having an amber color to begin with.

   

Wichita, I'm sorry I must have mis-lead you on having to sand lacquer between each and every coat but I mean't on the first coat or two and that'

s to get the  fuzzies of the wood removed then depending on how careful and how you apply the rest of the coats is up to you!

  And actually I usually use steel wood after the first coat or two. I have lots of bad areas that would take a few days of sanding but some of my pictures will show how I cut lots of the carving pieces into smaller sizes so most of those ups and downs are out in the open much more than they look when I glue everything back in to its original place after I carve the pieces with the dremel?

  You can see how I solved my problem of sanding for I cut these clock pieces so they are easy to make smooth with out lots of elbow grease.  And this lacquer ends up very smooth to the touch. Hey I have been at this type of finishing for more than 60 years so I guess you might say I have refined some of the hard work in to being a pleasure now. The scroll saw only takes a few minutes to cut these things apart so the work can be easier for me to do!!!

  Lacquer does not have to be a catch all for all those other gooey finishes for all I ever use is lacquer and its the easiest finish that takes less time to complete for it dries so fast......

 Yes your first picture shows a terrible attempt at your effort to apply a finish that I think you would want to be proud of. Sorry for me being honest but you asked for help!!

Edited May 9, 20224 yr by Smallpatch

Wichita I hope you are still looking at your post for I have more pictures that might convince you that the things I build I spend many more hours trying to make them the best looking I possibly can before they are photographed for others to see.

   After I put the color or stain to this tea pot I then started spraying a few coats of lacquer and at first I did have to sand or use steel wool until I got all to fuzzies removed then started spraying more coats of lacquer and probably have at least 20 coats on before I finally finished. I might have used up to 4 rattle cans of lacquer and it might have taken four or five days to complete the finishing cycle?? I don't keep any records of how long I spend building things! 

 

Another thing, the jewelry box with the raised carving was built so I could remove the carved pieces to stain  and spray the finish without having to sand down into the deep passage ways like what sounds like you are asking about..

  

 

All the dark pieces were scroll sawed so they could be removed and stained and spray finished before I was ready to glue every thing back together to become the jewelry box... This is just something I come up with to do away with that was eating my sack lunch for everything was much harder to build and finished  as one piece before I got smart???  

  And here again as you get better with more experience you will develop more short cuts that will save you time but not necessarily save you money.....Now just thinking back when I use to just put one or two light coats of lacquer on a project I now use two or three cans on each real small project. I done found out long ago I have to please me first and if that means more coats of finish, so be it.....if when I run my fingers over a finished project and get that smooth feeling then I know it will please the customer more so for he is the one forking over the money so he has got to be happy!!!!

 

 Each of those sections of carved pieces are connected and it does sometimes make it hard to slip them out of their slots but here is where a person has to consentrate on keeping the scroll saw blade straight up and down while sawing or else I couldn't push those pieces out to sand and stain. This is something that does take lots of scroll sawing to learn to do. And also I use a regular scroll saw blade so that means all the sawed areas are very smooth to the touch meaning they should slide out even though there is a smaller gap  to work with.