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I made a little sign for GPAF and I'm wiping tung oil on it to finish it. So I want to hear from the experts if I'm doing it right. What I did was to ask Brad to give me a piece of scrap walnut from one of the midhorns, and I took it to a CNC shop to cut my logo into it. I put a sheet of adhesive plastic on it as a mask and had them cut through that so I could paint the letters silver. Then I peeled off the mask to expose the walnut, and I'm rubbing tung oil into it. I thought it might be a good practice for me, since the only time I ever used tung oil was for touch up. This time, I wanted to see what uyou guys do to finish something properly. It's like wiping on vegetable oil or something, almost like water. I just use a cloth and wipe the stuff on in a very thin coat. I watch the reflection at an angle to see when the coat is uniform, then I go away for a few minutes. Maybe ten or fifteen minutes later, I come back and do it again. The first coat darkened the grain a little, just like I had moistened it with water. But the grain absorbs it and makes it look like you haven't done anything except darken it a tad. It took probably 20 coats before I could even tell it was holding a finish. Now it's starting to get a little shiny, but it seems like it will take 100 coats like this. That's no problem, it's easy, I just wipe it on. It's no more difficult than wiping a counter with a sponge. I rub it in a little, but it isn't like polishing a car or anything, it's more like just wiping it on. Is that what I'm supposed to do? It looks good, but is this the way tung oil is generally used?
Re:Put de lime in de coconut............
......and call me in de mornin'............... Flood the durface and let sit for 20 minutes then wipe off the excess until the rag slides easily. Let dry overnight. Flood the surface and let sit for 20 minuts, etc........ Wax it. The end! Or........... Tung Oil tips
I knew I'd seen posts from you about this. I didn't do it right, but it came out nicely. I'll bet I've wiped a thin coat on the panel 50 times though. It looks like the finish Martinelli put on the two π towers!
Not that it's superior to anybody's, but it's how I do it. Soak it down. Wait overnight. Using fine (000) steel wool, rub oil into the wood like Simonizing a car in the old days. Keep on rubbing till it shines.
I like a combination of both these guys. Apply a heavy coat and wipe most of it off after 1o minutes. then when the surface gets tacky in another 15 or 30 minutes. I rub it down hard with a clean soft rag to burnish the shine. If you apply another coat before the preceding coat hardened, then you end up re-dissolving, so to speak, the coat you just put on and don’t get as much build up as if you wait 4 hours to overnight. A fan can help speed things along. After two coats I use either fine steel wool or 600-1500 paper and smooth of the surface again. You can keep doing this until you’re happy with the finish.
Re:OMIGOSH!!! A THREAD on Craftsmen!!!!!
Yep, people got bored of building amps on the Group Build forum and came over here to build boxes for 'em.
Eventually I'm going to build a pair of 3 ft^3 sealed subs. I was contemplating that today, and how to build them stiff/dead. It occured to me that people always use sheet stock and then add braces. Some do the B&W thing and add a honeycomb of sorts to fill and stiffen from the interior. Has anybody considered emulating a "stress panel" - building a frame out of say 2X2s and then covering the outside/inside with something like 1/2" MDF. I guess the cavities could be filled with Great Stuff or similar (expanding foam). That would result in walls 2-1/4 inches thick - ought to be quite stiff, like a helicopter floor. The baffle would probably be solid, or at least it would be most convienient.
The Great Stuf could be trusted to push out the panels and maybe loosen the fasteners. And w/o you'd have 2 flapping panels/side. Taking a bit from Bob Brines and another from Art Ludwig I'm about to try a consrained layer with 3/4" Mdf then 30# roofing felt then 1/2" Hardi-Backer. Held together with polyurethane construction adhesive. If I ever get done with the freakin' radio! Watcha gonna use fer woofers?
I take the "amature" approach, meaning I have no delivery timelines to meet and I take advantage of the fact that I have all the time in the world. Like Epstein suggested, flood the surface for 20 minutes. Sometimes, for smaller pieces, I let it sit in a tray to soak. Wipe off any excess. Wait 2 days to dry. For the next 10 days to 2 weeks, wipe a very thin coat on every other day. Don't try to build a layer with it. This method is very time inefficent. But for someone like me who lack advance skill and knowledge, time is a great replacement. There are also different types of tung oil too. "Natural" takes longer to dry. Polymerized are faster drying and I find is better at building a coat (which I don't like to do). "High Lustre" tung oil from Lee Valley can build a lacquer-like finish, but is difficult to use straight out of the bottle. I like to use a blend of Lee Valley's High Lustre and "natural" tung oil as final coat. One part High Lustre with 4 parts "natural" gives me a soft sheen. Gar.
"There are also different types of tung oil too. "Natural" takes longer to dry. Polymerized are faster drying and I find is better at building a coat (which I don't like to do). "High Lustre" tung oil from Lee Valley can build a lacquer-like finish, but is difficult to use straight out of the bottle. I like to use a blend of Lee Valley's High Lustre and "natural" tung oil as final coat. One part High Lustre with 4 parts "natural" gives me a soft sheen." What problems did you have with the Lee Valley? I'm intrigued by your description as lacquer-like. I'm most familiar with the Waterlox satin which is what is used in my "Tung Oil Tips" link. It does build nicely but allows the grain and patina of an older piece come through.
"The Great Stuf could be trusted to push out the panels and maybe loosen the fasteners." Even when it says on the can "will not distort window frames"? It was kind of a generic suggestion - a layer of 1" insulating foam bonded perhaps, or something else to increase the section thickness. The woofers will Adire Tumults - they're currently in 17" H-Frames, but I want to see if I can "kick it up a notch".
This stuff is the shizzle, my nizzle. Polymeric Mastic 0.070" 32" x 54" 0.10 -30° to +300° F 0.7 Black 9709T19 14.62 Page 3274 McMaster-Carr
I find the Lee Valley High Luster tung oil is very thick and sticky right out of the bottle and difficult to get an even and smooth coat. Probably usable with a sprayer, which I don't have. Cut it with some normal stuff and it's a lot easier to spread. Maybe lacquer-like is not the best term. I got about ten to twelve coats on my 3PI speakers, resulting in a high gloss clear coat thick enough to fill the open grains of the oak panel. Unfortunately it does not have the durability of lacquer. Recently, at your suggestion, I started playing with boiled linseed oil. Love the stuff. Very different from tung oil.