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Bondo

983 views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  VIFmike 
#1 ·
Looking for things to smooth out small errors I made preparing some plywood, that I am toying with staining upon project completion, the knowledgeable sales person at my well stocked local hardware store had stainable wood putty, which I bought a small tub of to try out, but swore by Bondo for such things, and that it accepts stain well and pretty consistently with surrounding wood.

Have any of you thoughts on the use of Bondo (good or bad) to make small repairs in the plywood table top I'm making, should I wish to ultimately stain it?

Of course what ever direction I take, I'd try it myself on a scrap piece first.

Thanks.
 
#2 ·
Bondo really doesn't take a stain very well. What I usually do is mix some universal color tint to the bondo before adding hardener when using bondo on stain grade projects. Universal color tint is the colorant a paint store has in their machines to mix paint. Often a real paint store will have colorant in pint bottles you can buy. If you take some small containers into a paint store some of them will dispense some in containers for you. A little goes a long way. Mixing bondo you might use only tiny drops of each color. Generally for wood you would need raw umber, yellow oxide and red oxide. If you are going very dark you might also need black.
 
#3 ·
Your knowledgeable sales guy at a hardware store said bond takes wood stain...

Time to find a new hardware store. Without mixing in a tint while mixing the resin up, it's going to be pink, and isn't changing without painting. When it comes to wood filler I'm pretty fond of timbermate. It accepts stain pretty well and comes in a nice variety of colors that match wood species fairly well. It does smell pretty strongly though
 
#4 ·
Bondo is a brand name just like Coke or Band-aid. Bondo brand body filler is the absolute worst filler on the market by a mile.

There are many other brands that are thinner, smoother and also have several colors of hardener that will make them dry tan, brown, light brown etc. Plus the aforementioned tinting. If you use it try getting some from an automotive paint store.

I use it on large damaged areas on pieces usually on the bottom.
 
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