Curse Zeus!

[McQualude]

An evil thing that could only be described as one of those events that must have convinced the Greeks that their gods were petty and cruel happened to me yesterday.

I've been laboring over SWMBO's new dining room table for weeks. Selecting the finest mahogany, aligning the grain, hours of hand planing, scraping and sanding, filling the grain and finally- staining. I always get a little nervous when applying stain but the operation went perfectly. The table was beautiful. I pour stain and mineral spirits into small pyrex cups, it keeps dust out of the original container and cleanup is simple enough. I dump the excess stain on the little deck outside the shop where it soaks into the wood and then I wipe everything down with mineral spirits and put the cups back on the shelf. But not this time, this time some unseen force (Loki no doubt) swatted the cup out of my hand, it tumbled through the air bouncing off my fingers as I tried to catch it, tried to intercept it before it landed hard edge first right in the middle of the table top. I nearly went berserk at the sight of that dent in my beautiful table.

What to do. My first thought was to burn the whole thing and remind SWMBO how much she liked our current dining room table when we bought it! But reason prevailed and I remembered that dents can sometimes be steamed out. Before trying it, I decided to pull out the bible (of finishing) and hope that Flexner would tell me what to do. Flexner suggested putting just a drop of water on the dent and using a soldering gun or hot wire to boil it. It worked! After two steamings, 85-90% of the dent steamed out, but so did the stain. I decided to stop and live with the barest hint of a depression that remained. A quick swipe with a dab of stain and the table looked great.

I realize now that I was lucky the cup landed in the middle of the table. No one will ever see the dent. SWMBO comes back from visiting her folks on Monday, hopefully the table will be finished and sitting in the dining room. Next up... learning to build chairs, oh my.

[Jack-of-all-trades - JOAT]

Fri, Jul 25, 2003, 6:36am (EDT+4) [e-mail] (McQualude) says: An evil thing that could only be described as one of those events that must have convinced the Greeks that their gods were petty and cruel Next up...

Next up, I would say, don't badmouth the Gods. Especially the Woodworking Gods.

You might want to stay indoors during thunderstorms for awhile. Won't be too long, the Gods have the attention span of an addled duck.

JOAT Always put off until tomorrow something which, tomorrow, you could put off until, let's say, next year.

- Lady Myria LeJean.

Life just ain't life without good music. - JOAT Web Page Update 23 Jul 2003. Some tunes I like.

[Traves W. Coppock]

On Fri, 25 Jul 2003 04:12:52 -0400 (EDT), [e-mail] (Jack-of-all-trades - JOAT)Crawled out of the shop and said. . .:

snip

and now that you have insulted them,,,hehe

Traves

[George]

Visions of the commercial for "adult ADD/ADHD...."

[LRod]

My coach told me to always use a cup.

LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

[Bob Gramza]

: >I've been laboring over SWMBO's new dining room table for weeks. : >Selecting the finest mahogany, aligning the grain, hours of hand : >planing, scraping and sanding, filling the grain and finally- staining. : : You stained mahogany? That's bad karma, LudeDude. : : : >this time, this time some unseen force (Loki no doubt) swatted the cup : >out of my hand, it tumbled through the air bouncing off my fingers as I : >tried to catch it, tried to intercept it before it landed hard edge : >first right in the middle of the table top. I nearly went berserk at the : >sight of that dent in my beautiful table. : : See? What did I tell ya? Instant karma, yet! : : So, what'd you learn from this little episode? : : : Use a light plastic cup ?

[Charlie Spitzer]

no kids, eh?

[Bill Wallace]

Completed a fine set of mission oak entables. Taking pictures to add to website

and maybe sell on ebay. Done taking pictures, putting away props... drop heavy glass candle holder, deep dent in top.

Fast forward to workshop.

Try burn in stick and it's working pretty well. Overheat putty knife on last smoothing pass and fry lacquer in a 2 in patch surrounding

3/16" (now beautifully filled) dent. Rub out burned laquer with pure thinner. Try feather sanding edges of area before recoating with lacquer, sand through stain. Try staining. Won't take. Try toning some lacquer with transtint, color is off a bit but looks like it will be ok. Over coating with clear lacquer and it washes away color lacquer, now have lacquered unstained patch. Pull top off piece to prepare to put back through drum sander. Lacquer loads sandaper to a gloss finish. Use 80 grit on hand held belt sander to cut through lacquer. Nearly down to all raw wood and table top shoots out from under belt sander, hits bottle of transtint knocking top off. Nice 5" black spot in center of table top. About 1/16" later drum sander finally removes spot.

There is no god.

[Pat Barber]

Thank you Bill, Thank You......

Snipped best story told Nice 5" black spot in center of table top. About 1/16" later drum sander finally removes spot. There is no god.

[Jack-of-all-trades - JOAT]

Fri, Jul 25, 2003, 10:50am (EDT-3) [e-mail] (Bill=A0Wallace) claims: There is no god.

Certainly there is. He's the one they claim keeps track of every sparrow that falls, or something like that. Apparently there is nothing in the job description about doing somthing about it, just the counting.

JOAT Always put off until tomorrow something which, tomorrow, you could put off until, let's say, next year.

- Lady Myria LeJean.

Life just ain't life without good music. - JOAT Web Page Update 23 Jul 2003. Some tunes I like.

[Ernie Jurick]

There is, and he hates your ass, bro. ;-)

-- Ernie

[Gnube]

Of course you meant "she", that much wanton bedlam could never be produced by a bloke with such apparent ease! THAT level of mayhem _requires_ a hormone issue! ;O)

Take Care, Gnube {too thick for linux}

[Charles Bragg]

Jeff Jewitt's article in the current FWW says it all. When you get a load of mahogany it is different colors, textures, and I suspect in my case, species. There wasn't enough of any one color to make a whole project (14 feet of bookshelves) *and* I am using mahog ply with solid edges for the shelves. So, Jeff's ideas about staining are going to be put to the test as soon as the tint arrives. I already made a couple of pieces and using garnet shellac helped, but the finished product is red red red. Without the garnet it looks like fine-grained mushy cherry. There has to be a better way.

===== Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others. ===== {remove curly brackets for email}

[Larry Jaques]

On Fri, 25 Jul 2003 21:33:58 GMT, "Ernie Jurick" pixelated:

The woodworking gods DO know how to whack the peepees of the sinnin' stainers, don't they?

-------------------------------------------- -- I'm in touch with my Inner Curmudgeon. --

Comprehensive Website Development ============================================================

[Robert Bonomi]

"There is no God but Murphy, And O'Brien is his prophet."

For those not familiar with O'brien:

O'Brien's Law: Murphy was an *optimist*!

[McQualude]

Charlie Spitzer spaketh...

2 and they are well behaved, but that is not the point, the point is that I don't want any dents starting out, it would be nice if it still looks new when it reaches the house

[McQualude]

Larry Jaques spaketh...

A. SWMBO wanted it stained B. See A ;)

[Charlie Spitzer]

my point being if you have kids, then one dent won't be noticed after 10-20 years.