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We’re starting to finish a hall bench my wife wanted. We decided to use (of course) General finishes milk paint and the color is driftwood. It looks like a darker gray. The plans call for barn board for the backing and a piece inserted into the door (see photo). The driftwood color is awesome! However, barn board is very expensive, so I got some rough sawn pine. My question to the group is what color, if any, should I stain the pine backboards? 1. Leave it natural and let the color do whatever it wants…? 2. Stain it….if stain what color? I tried a little golden oak on a scrap piece and wifey didn’t like it. She said it looked a bit red-ish. She thinks it should be stained with an ebony stain, I think it will make the entire bench look to dark. here is a photo of the bench. I made the picture black and white so no one would be persuaded by the colors they used. First photo shows the color we put on the bench. im a bit stumped on this one….

A few weeks ago mama decided she wanted a cabinet to store her arts and crafts supplies that are taking up floor space in our upstairs hallway. She went shopping online and found a cabinet she liked for 230 bucks, and it was the typical particle board white surface type of stuff. So I told her I'd be happy to build it and the materials would be less as well. So she and I went to our lumber store and picked up some 4/4 poplar, poplar because she wants the exterior painted white, and I want the interior natural finished. We will be using General Finishes Milk Paint for the exterior. Also, I am going to build saw tooth shelf supports as well. This is our hardwood lumber dealer "Reel Lumber", about 30 miles from home, it's full of all kinds of stuff, from pine to oak to exotics and everything in between. Our Poplar was running about 2.70 a board foot. I spent about 150 bucks, and with the Milk Paint, we are going to come under budget from her online cabinet she wanted, and we are going to have a piece of furniture to pass down to our kids, and their kids. Got the boards home and had to size and join them. Note: if you look behind my Makita CMS, you'll see a cross with a flame in a heart plaque, when I was going through some serious health issues a year ago, my friend Jess @Smallpatch, sent me this very special and inspiring gift, it lifted my spirits enormously, and when I felt I needed a little nudge from the Lord while working in the shop during that rough time, all I had to do was look at my plaque, and I felt it. To this day I cherish it, and I feel the Spirit in it. Just a board on the bench, laying out dado's. Glued up. I built the face frame with a Kreg pocket screw jig, and then glued the frame to the case, and bored holes in the face frame for 1/4" dowels, 1 1/2" long and glued and driven in to the case, then a flush cut hand saw and cut the dowels flush and block planed them smooth. Since the case is going to be painted, I thought adding the extra strength of the dowels would be good since you won't see them below the paint. I also mixed up some two part epoxy and floated it over each dowel, let dry then sanded smooth, just so there weren't any issues with the end grain of the dowels sucking up the paint. Joining boards for the raised panels. Getting the rails and stiles ready for the raised panel doors, I was playing with my Stanley 45 yesterday, and after a few tweaks here and there, she purred and plowed, making some wonderful clean 1/4" wide by 3/8" deep grooves to accept the raised panel. The grooves turned out very nice. After running the grooves in, I used a block plane to take a whisper shaving off the top to clean up the surface. Within an hour I had two rails and one stile done, and I was starting on the second stile when mama called me in for dinner last night. Here is where the case is as of today. The backed boards are beveled and nailed off on the back of the cabinet. Today I am gluing up the door panels. I'll keep the images coming, and thanks for looking! My very special cup, that a friend gave me, and also a cup for mama too!

We had an awesome snow here. Right around 14" of the light powdery stuff. New snow blower worked flawlessly! Our Patriot Turners- @Steve Krumanaker has expanded his Lid Making business to include pieces for spice bottles. Steve shows us some of the work it takes to create these new items- Check out his post for more details- @Pauley turned a couple of spectacular bowls. The wood color and grain patterns take your breathe away! Please see his post for the images and the types of wood he used- @RustyFN was also working on a beautifully colored bowl. Rusty received lots of comments about his choice of wood and the bowl- @AndrewB is really having fun with his new pressure pot and casting resins. He continued to update us on last week's post with more images of some of his castings You can can see the updates at- Andrew used one of the castings to begin turning an egg- In Andrew's post, @Gerald gave us a link to some of his favorite color additives for resin. Here's the link to the discussion- Andrew didn't just turn acrylic resin this week. I suspect there will be some pine tar resin on his lathe after working with some wood his local tree guys gave him. See more images and his progress in this post- I hope you all are aware The Patriot Woodworker has added another sponsor- General Finishes! While we may be tempted to think of their finishes being used for woodworking, they have a woodturning finish, too! Here's a short video from General Finishes demonstrating that finish- What’s Coming Up- Although there is light at the end of the tunnel, some of "The Woodworking Shows" will still be virtual. You can get more information about the schedule and demonstrators at- https://www.thewoodworkingshows.com/?fbclid=IwAR39zWURThvLgnzTRqV9OAdVKFxNtR9qON_8bR36HupZ-GVNMR11oAjnQcU Highland Woodworking is offering an online course for photographing your work. Although it is directed toward photographing furniture, there certainly could be some worthwhile content for the turner- Click on the above image for the link to registration and more information. For The Newbies- Over the past month or so we have had a reoccurring topic about gouges and the discussion often centers around the choice between HSS and carbide. In this video, the author provides pros and cons of both types of tools. (Editor's note: The thing I have found in these comparison videos/articles is that the author(s) are often turners who have used HSS tools from the time they started turning. Many of them have decades of experience using the "traditional" tools. Then with a few hours of carbide turning, they render their often not so positive verdict. Perhaps the opinions would be different if they had the same tool time with both types of tools.) Expand Your Horizons- Maybe I should call this compress your horizons. One of the first questions, when considering casting resins, is how to get rid of the bubbles that form in the pour. Should I use a vacuum or use pressure? This video attempts to answer that question. Having had some experience with casting objects (cold cast porcelain) we found that a combination of both was the best way to go. We would vacuum each part of the components- before mixing. Carefully mix. Apply pressure. Looking for that perfect toy for the grandkids, or great grandkids? Tim Yoder has you covered- New Turning Items- Ruth Niles has a couple of new items on her website- This 3/8" three fluted spiral tap is especially suited for acrylics and very hard wood- https://nilesbottlestoppers.com/product/spiral-3-8-tap/ She also has new mandrel adapters- https://nilesbottlestoppers.com/product/mandrel-adapters/ Everything Else- Rick Turns list of YouTube turning videos from last week. If you missed the Virtual Craft Festival this past weekend, several of the presenters' videos are included in Rick's list. Safe turning and stay well

Introduction Please welcome to our community, our new supporter General Finishes. We are very proud to have our new friends "General Finishes" here among our folks and our endeavors. I have personally always loved the General Finishes brand, before I ever tried General Finishes I always thought them a company of quality and class, and I knew by word of mouth they have been making high quality finishes for a long time, no frills, no fuss, with Made in the USA quality and care. Then I tried General Finishes "Topcoat" on my Cherry Rocking chair and I was thrilled with the results. That was three years ago when I first tried the product, and now here we are with the support of General Finishes! I know many of you use their finishes, and I have heard very positive results from you, just one more reason to invite them to our community. We called, they answered Our supporters, I don't just mass mail an advertisement calling all brands to come support us, I do the research, "Made in the USA" grabs my attention, where they are based, their workforce, the product line of course, the management, the overall feel from the woodworking community at large, then once those quality attributes are ticked off, I invite them here. Once that invite is made, our potential supporter will do the same to us, they will research who we are, then upon marking off their own check list, they decide if they want to support our community and our causes. Thankfully, General Finishes decided that our community is worthy of their brand. And yes, on a personal level I am very proud to have their presence. As it is with our supporters already here, I feel we have another very high quality and classy friend among us, supporting our ability to keep our forums open, and supporting our ability to help our veterans. General Finishes has also gone the extra mile, they support our community as a whole, but they also signed on to support the Finishing Forums as well, that incurs an extra cost on our supporter, and we hope you will consider that when making your next product purchase for a finish. Thank you General Finishes for your extra support. To see their presence in our Finishing Forums click on the proceeding link. Your support Given all that is stated above, I'd like to ask The Patriot Woodworker community at large, to support our supporters! They have outlaid funding for us, they are trusting us to carry their brand with respect, dignity and class, they are supporters of the veterans we help! And for that reason, I hope you all will consider General Finishes for your next woodworking or restoration project. In closing We are very pleased and proud to have General Finishes aboard, with the rising costs of server and licensing fees to keep our community running, and with our eyes on the main objective, helping our veterans anyway we are able, the support of General Finishes is allowing us to branch out more and to reach out to our veterans more, and to also help them when they come calling to us. Thank you General Finishes, and thank you Patriot Woodworkers. Links of interest The Patriot Woodworker page for General Finishes The Patriot Woodworker page for GF Videos Our Finishing Forum supported by General Finishes General Finishes Home Page Where to Buy General Finishes General Finishes YouTube Channel General Finishes Facebook Page General Finishes University Facebook Page

Dear folks, my son and I just finished building a solid cherry with walnut accents desk, we would like to finish the desk in a satin clear, but we also love the warmth and patina that develops with oil based finishes. We are not staining our project, we are applying the finish with brush, or wipe on. I am going to dive into the General Finishes line of products, I'd like to know if anyone here has any recommendations for our project?

Good Monday morning! Good Monday morning Patriot Woodworkers! What did you get done over the weekend, and what have you planned for the week ahead! Inquiring minds want to know. Please tell us what's happening in your shops, your life, and any events going on with you. Thank you for being here folks! Welcome new members To view our newest members and welcome them to our digs, please see our Members Page, you can "Sort" by join date and click on their names and be taken to their profile page where you can leave a message of welcome. Thank you for making our newest folks feel welcome. Featured topic Our Featured topic by @FrederickH will also have been added to "Our Picks", this is a page for content that has stood out and been chosen for a special place in our community, and for a limited time showing on our Home Page for the world to see. Featured link Our featured links are website links added by staff and members, add your favorite links today at "Links Directory". Please add your favorite links today! If a category is missing, just tell us, we'll install it and away you go! Featured download It's rare that a member shares a download with our community, if you would like to share a plan, a file, or even a drawing schematic, please do so at our Download department. Featured image A little twist from our usual featured image, I thought I'd tease and tantalize everyone regarding the reason why, this very special featured image, is here in our forums, why? Anyone have a clue? Take a look around our community, and see if you can find anything out of the ordinary!

Was looking to buy some more GF Enduro-Var and remember that Wal*mart is carrying their finishes now and is both closer and might be less expensive. Not so fast. (all have free shipping) Walmart Gal Gloss Enduro-Var Current Price $99.95 (but I could have sworn it was $120 a couple of days ago!) Rockler $99.99 Gallon RocklerPro $89.99 Gallon Woodcraft $102.50 Amazon $89.99

Well for several weeks I have posted some pictures of this chest and I am happy to report to you that it is finished. Just a recap. Started with a visit to the Wood Stash and hand picked some of the best looking Cherry Boards from the stack. Cut them to size, ran them across the jointer and then through the planner. I then took the cherry boards and edge glued them together to make the panels for the front, back and both ends of the chest. Then I put two of these panels together to make a four board panel. Then I put the two four board panels together to make one large panel. Actually one of the panels had five boards.. Using my 50" Bessey clamps to hold the two panels together. So I had two long panels for the front and back and two short panels for the ends. Then I started working on a sample for the trim or molding to go around the top and bottom. After a few adjustments to the bits, I settled on the way I wanted to make the trim and started routing the pieces. First a couple of passes with the curved bit in the router and the with the round top bit and then a 1/2" round over bit. So I sanded the trim and then started on the feet for the chest. They are double boards so the chest actually sits on one board and the trim sits on the other board. There are blocks behind the feet to attach them to the plywood bottom. So everything is now trimmed up, miters cut and ready to put together. Now it is time to move it to the spray booth and put the water based dye on. I purchased an Antique Cherry dye and I really love the look it gave the chest. I sprayed it on and then took a damp paper towel and smoothed out the finish. If you get a bit much in a spot it is okay, you still have time to smooth it out. I put two coats on and then sprayed on five coats of General Finishes Enduro Var. It was them rubbed out with 0000 steel wool and Johnson's paste wax.. So there you have the Cherry Blanket Chest from start to finish.