First Coat of Finish

Dust-free environment. The instructions always say dust-free environment. Who the hell has these? Not me, obviously.

So instead, I swept out my garage the day before, let the dust settle, then brought my shop vac into the garage and gave the coffee table a good once over. Finally, I wiped it down with one of those special dust collector cloths.

I flipped through my copy of Bob Flexner's "Understanding Wood Finishing" book to see if Bob could talk me out of my standard, Minwax Wipe-On Poly varnish. He almost convinced me to use a two-part epoxy resin finish for the top surface. But a brief chat with my brother convinced me that the epoxy resin probably blocked moisure exchange completly, which meant unless I could coat all surfaces and joints with the stuff, I would have to be concerned with some warping some day. In the end, I picked Wipe-On Poly.


The first coat was a pain, which scares me about the rest of the coats I'll have to do. However, it was nice to see the warming effect of the varnish. I still have to put my first coat on the six doors.

Sanding Before the Finish

I always think sanding will be a quick task but it never is. I used 60 grit to get rid of saw blade marks and remove remaining sharp edges. Then I hand-sanded the whole thing with 120 grit, and then a third time with 320 grit. I know the 320 is overkill since I plan to use wiping varnish, but I didn't have any paper between 120 and 320 left and I was too lazy to go buy it.



I used blocks of wood to hold the paper for most areas. There are lots of cracks, grooves, and hard to reach places on this table. And once I started using the 320 grit, it revealed all the scratches and blemishes. I tried to back down the grits and polish most of the defects out but after about 6 hours I was sore, bored, and feeling like it was good enough for a weekend warrior, such as myself.

Ebony Plugs Sanded

After cutting the plugs with a flush saw and a little sanding, I've got my decorative, screw hole patches done. ...I'm not sure I like them. Oh well!

Ebony Plugs

I wanted to use something fun and interesting for the plugs because I knew it was a good opportunity to use a scrap. I wanted something really dark to contrast with the Walnut. The guys at the lumber yard sold me a small cut from a piece of macassar ebony for about $10. It was a steal considering macassar ebony costs about $75 per board foot, making it one of the more expensive woods one can buy. Apparently a tax recently added to the wood in India, has made this wood extremely expensive. Below is a picture of my piece. It has black and chocolate brown stripes.


I converted the Shopsmith to a drill press and used my plug cutter bit to cut several plugs. I'm sure the scrap will yield plugs for projects to come, as there is much left over.


After using my router to add a chamfer around the top perimeter of the table, I glued and tapped the plugs in with a hammer. Next week, I'll cut them flush and do some sanding. Then it will be time for my least favorite phase...applying finish.