Q: We’d like to coat our stripped metal furniture with hammer finish from Rust-Oleum. The local paint person stated this can be applied directly to the metal, but perhaps I am just being old school so I am questioning whether priming first would be better. A: Rustoleum’s hammer finish is in fact fine to use [...]
Q: In preparation for painting stripped metal furniture, we’ve wiped down the pieces with soapy water and wiped everything dry, gone back over the pieces and have given them a light sanding. Do I need to be concerned with chemical residue from the previous finishes, stripper or other contaminate? A: Possibly. Some strippers contain wax, [...]
Q: We purchased a used dinette set; the style is often referred to a wrought iron, however the chairs and base are clearly metal. They appear to have been originally powder coated, and subsequently painted over by the former owner with what looks like latex paint. Using a gel stripper and a bit of elbow [...]
Q: I just obtained two small table lamps made of burl and the lampshades are of what appears to be birdseye maple veneer. The veneer is fabric backed and very brittle. As a result there are some small voids and cracks in each shade. I plan to back the voids with wood putty and then [...]
Q: My painter sprayed lacquer recently on a hot and humid day and trapped moisture under the finish. Having had experience with this I told him to re-spray with lacquer retarder added to the lacquer and to remove the humidity from the room before re-spraying. This worked to a certain extent but still did not [...]
Q: I want to fume the ridge beam in my house. Obviously, I can’t simply remove it, and place it in a tent for fuming. What would happen if I painted a light layer of ammonia on it? A: First, fuming only works with woods high in tannin, so before you do anything, figure out [...]
Q: When you say to control the color by how you mix the stain not how you apply I am a little confused. My stain is premixed. It is General Finishes water based dye stain. Can that be thinned using water and do I need to thin it? A: You can thin any stain, should [...]
Q: If I brush on a final finish, will it cause water based dye stain to bleed into the finish on the brush and smear? A: Water soluble dye can bleed onto a brush loaded with waterbased finish. Whether that will be enough to smear the stain also depends on your brushing technique and how [...]
Q: Should I apply a sanding sealer after staining maple? I read that you cannot use sanding sealer under a sprayed precatalyzed spray lacquer which is what I was thinking of finishing with. A: That’s half true; stearated sealers, which are one type of sealer, are not compatible under most catalyzed finishes. You must have [...]
Q: I am about to start staining and finishing my new maple kitchen cabinets. I decided to use a dye stain. On my sample pieces I applied a wood conditioner then lightly sanded, then applied the stain to the color I wanted. A: Dyes work best on raw wood. Wood conditioners work by inhibiting stain [...]
Powered by eShop v.6
