*this post ended up very long , but I wanted to be descriptive with what I’ve done so far , so feel free to skip to the last couple paragraphs for the bulk of what I’m looking for help with *
Hi there , I am very new to this. I have made a few smaller tables and have had mixed results so far with finishing . I am working on a maple cookie coffee table right now , I’ve been working with limited supplies as I’m out of work right now due to covid and can’t justify buying too much new stuff rather than working with what I already have.
so this slab was dry and recently planed when I picked it up, with some odd burn marks from the planer on the top side . I filled some small Voids with epoxy on both sides allowing to harden before flipping , and did a light seal coat on the top side only if I remember correctly .
Once the epoxy was fully cured I scraped away as much as I could with a heat gun/ sunlight and scraper , and then I used 80 grit on my belt sander to even it out a bit more (I feel like this was a mistake , as I left some marks that were very hard to get rid of, maybe also the main cause of the uneven spots I will mention later ?) this was one of my first times using a belt sander and I feel I didn’t pay enough attention to speed, pressure, and grain direction .
once I noticed how much the belt sander was gouging I switched to my 5” random orbit sander (cheap black and decker ) and spent along time with 80 grit trying to remove some of those gouges . I feel like here I was also probably over focusing on rough spots and not moving evenly and consistently . Once I got the bulk of the marks out I then sanded more with the with 120 and 220 ( all I could afford / had available at my local store at the time )
sorry if this is super long , but anyway by this point I was pleased with how smooth the table felt , to my amateur eye the only thing that was really standing out were some residual burn marks from the planer , which Ihad already focused alot on and couldn’t seem to get rid of . I was hoping the finish would disguise this , and I also had a lot of small cracks leftover on top which I decided to leave and not do any further epoxy or filling work .I will also mention I filled some side cracks And random tiny voids with wood filler which I tinted a bit ( I wish I didn’t to this as it really stands out)
I thought about scraping out the wood filler and trying to fill some cracks with something more discreet , but then I decided to just go ahead with finish .
This was on overwhelming step as I had a can of osmo 1101 clear and 3043 clear , and had heard so many different application methods , most which were not available to me . Applied a coat of Osmo 1101 clear to the bottom side with a cloth , buffed in evenly by hand and wiped away after 30 minutes , wiping excess over the edges . Then I flipped it onto some cloths and did the same on the top side . Once I started wiping away by hand on the top side it was very sticky and hard to get off , so I grabbed my cheap automotive bugger with a pretty soft cloth bonnet and buffed away for ten minutes or so . It was looking pretty great to me at this point , I should note I was working outside in partial sunlight which I’m not sure about ? But in the sunlight I couldn’t really see any streak marks , a couple spots that seemed to be “dry spots “ which I hoped the second cost would handle . After a bit more research on the osmo website I decided to do the second coat on the top with 3043 clear Polyx oil, also applied with a cloth , buffed in by hand . This time I waited about 5 minutes and hit some of the spots that seemed to be soaking up more finish again. Buffed away with the soft cloth bonnet on car buffer .
so this is where I’m at with it now. The second coat has sat for about 3 or 4 days and I’ve been careful not to touch the top with bare hands as I saw on some YouTube video you have to wait up to two weeks to handle some osmo products ( is that true ? This stuff seems too complicated for me at this point in my experience )
I’m pleased with how it looks overall , but I’m a perfectionist by nature so I can’t help but notice some dry spots, inconsistencies in the finish maybe some low spots I created by spending too long in certain areas , I’ll include some pics and try and show these areas as much as possible I’m trying to decide / figure out whether at this point after 2 coats of finish I can / should fix any of these problems . I purchased the hot stuff/ super t/ special t glue set and a bigger variety of sandpaper. I was thinking maybe I could fix some of the dry spots with the glue but I’m not sure how to go about that with 2 coats of finish on , and the low spots . Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated !
