I am working on refinishing a baby crib. I am trying to make sure that the wood stain that I bought is safe for the baby before I finish the crib. I bought Minwax stain. Is this stain safe for a baby. I have also been reading that a crib needs 3 - 4 coats of polyurethane and that there needs to be 24 hour of drying time between each coat. Can anyone give me any tips on how to refinish the crib and make it safe for baby?:huh:
Safely staining a baby crib
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Film finishes like oil base varnish, oil base polyurethane, shellac, waterbased polyurethane are "baby safe" once cured. If you use an oil base stain, once dry, apply the first coat of finish and let dry. After that it's a matter of adding coats of finish to get the desired look.
You could thin the oil base finishes with naptha instead of mineral spirits for a faster dry. If you do the applications as a "wipe on", being thinned, more coats might be necessary than a full strength brush on.
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You could thin the oil base finishes with naptha instead of mineral spirits for a faster dry. If you do the applications as a "wipe on", being thinned, more coats might be necessary than a full strength brush on.
Oil base poly is good. Get yourself a nice brush. With poly the better the brush the smoother the finish. Fine brush marks will level out when it drys. A good brush will give you a fairly thin coat so over night may be enough dry time. You can tell when you sand.
To sand between coats use 320 grit sandpaper. If you live near a serwin williams, or someone that supplies cabinet makers with finish, or a cabinet maker you might be able to get your hands on some marron sanding pads.They look like scotch pads (green scrub pads) but they are very fine. They work great for sanding in weird places and sanding out brush marks.
Your first coat will be a sealer coat it may raise the grain a little so the first sanding will be a little rough. don't get discoraged it will be much smoother on the next coats.
Don't forget prepparation is most important the smoother it feels the better the finish. I always sand 120 then 220 then 320 Then it feels like BUTTER !
God Bless; Mainzy:thumbsup:
To sand between coats use 320 grit sandpaper. If you live near a serwin williams, or someone that supplies cabinet makers with finish, or a cabinet maker you might be able to get your hands on some marron sanding pads.They look like scotch pads (green scrub pads) but they are very fine. They work great for sanding in weird places and sanding out brush marks.
Your first coat will be a sealer coat it may raise the grain a little so the first sanding will be a little rough. don't get discoraged it will be much smoother on the next coats.
Don't forget prepparation is most important the smoother it feels the better the finish. I always sand 120 then 220 then 320 Then it feels like BUTTER !
God Bless; Mainzy:thumbsup:
Oh yea. do not shake the polyurethane it will cause little air bubbles to form which are hard to get rid of. All you need to do is stir gently. Stir the poly occasionaly while working with it also. Air bubbles will also form if you brush to agressively nice smooth brush strokes.
God Bless;Mainzy
God Bless;Mainzy
I had finished sanding one piece and decided to go ahead and stain that piece to see how it was gonna look. It looks great. So now I am still in the sanding stage on the other pieces. I have found that this is a tedious job but it will be well worth it.
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