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Steaming Dents

By the time your piece of furniture is ready for finishing, odds are good that it will have picked up some dents and gouges along the way. A dent is a depression in which the wood fibers were crushed, but not torn or cut, while a gouge has fibers cut or wood missing. We will deal with gouges later. You can usually steam dents out, and now is the time to remove them.

Start with a wet cotton cloth and a hot iron, preferably one no longer being used for clothing. Using an eyedropper, a small artist’s brush or even a toothpick, fill the dent with a drop or two of water. Add more water if it soaks in immediately to ensure that the depression is filled with water. Place the wet rag over the water-filled dent and press the iron onto it. The wet cloth will prevent the iron from scorching the surrounding wood. Leave the iron on only a few seconds until the cloth is dry beneath it. You may have to repeat the whole process, but usually one or two pressings with the iron should bring the dent up to level.

Glue Spots

Now that the dents are out, there is still one more simple step to do before you start sanding, and it is one that can save you tons of aggravation later. Look for and remove any glue spots. If you miss them, they will show up after staining or after the first coat of finish, and at that point they will be a bear to remove.

Glue spots are not easy to see in raw wood. The easiest way to spot them is to wet the wood. Because wet wood looks different, usually darker, and because glue forms a liquid barrier preventing the wood beneath it from wetting, the glue spots should show up a lighter color. I like to use naphtha or mineral spirits for this step.

Remove the glue by scraping, cutting, sanding or in the case of some glues, with its solvent. Hide glue residue, for example, can be removed with warm water. Since you have not yet sanded the rest of the wood, you can use whatever grit of paper works, if you choose to sand them off. I usually reach for 80 grit, since that is likely to be my first sanding grit following this step. Rewet the surface afterward to make sure you removed all the glue, then let the wood dry completely.

First Sanding

Before we talk about grit sizes, let’s look at how to sand. If you sand by hand, use a block and sand diagonally to the grain. Sanding wood, especially softwood, with the grain can erode early wood bands faster than late wood bands causing a ‘washboard’ effect. Sanding diagonally prevents that. With each new grit size, reverse direction and sand in the opposite diagonal from before. By switching direction, the wood will tell you when it is time to stop; as soon as scratches in the former direction are all gone, you are ready to move to the next grit.

Most people, though, sand with a machine, typically a random orbit or vibrating sander. These sand in a tiny round pattern, so the direction you move the sander is irrelevant. What does matter is the speed you move the tool. Sanders are usually designed to be moved only about one inch per second, which is quite slow. Almost everyone moves their sander much faster than that. Moving the sander too fast can result in pigtails; small spirals that show up during staining.

Try this: Run your finger along a twelve inch ruler, making sure you take twelve seconds to get from one end to the other. You may be surprised, but that is how slowly you should be moving the sander.

Each step in the sanding process has a specific goal. If you don’t know the goal, you won’t know when to stop sanding and you will either sand too much or too little. The goal of the first sanding is to remove machine or tool marks, and in some cases to flatten boards. I find 80 grit aluminum oxide paper is best for that step. It cuts fast but does not leave egregious scratches.

Dings and Gouges

Once you remove the tool marks it will be easy to see any dings or gouges that will have to be puttied. Do that now. Use a putty that is slightly lighter than or equal to the very lightest color in the background of the wood. You’ll have to trust me on this, but you will see why we chose that color in article number three of this series.

If you plan to stain the wood, test the dried, sanded putty first on scrap of the same wood to see if the putty absorbs more or less stain than the surrounding wood. Adjust the putty color accordingly, either by switching to a different color or by tinting the putty you are using. When the putty is dry, sand it flush with 80 grit paper.

Now that the tool marks are gone and putty spots are level, move to the next grit, which for me is 120 aluminum oxide. There is only one goal for this sanding step; remove the 80 grit scratches. That will happen very quickly. The next step is similar; use 180 grit paper to remove the 120 grit scratches.

If you sand by hand you know when to move to the next grit by looking for wrong direction scratches. It’s a bit tougher with a machine, but if you move the machine only one inch per second and cover the entire surface once, you will most likely have removed the previous scratches. It’s another good reason to use your sander that way. While moving that slowly may seem time consuming, you will not have to go back over areas two or three times, so in the long run, it is quick and efficient.

It goes without saying that these grit steps are general suggestions. You might decide to start with 100 grit, then 150, and finally 180 or 220, instead of the sequence I set out. That is also fine. In some instances you might get away with starting at 120 grit. What is important is that you don’t skip steps and that each grit does its intended job. Starting too fine, or jumping from 80 to 180, for example, might leave hard to notice tool marks or 80 grit scratches amid the larger base of 180 grit ones. They may be invisible in sanded wood, but they will show up during staining and finishing.

Hand Sand

The final sanding is to remove the 180 orbital or diagonal scratches without adding new ones. For that I sand by hand, with the grain, once again using 180 paper, since nothing removes 180 scratches faster than 180 grit paper. However, instead of aluminum oxide, I use garnet paper for this step.

While aluminum oxide grit leaves a crisp V-shaped sc ratch, garnet leaves a softer U-shaped one, and that translates into less aggressive stain absorption and more even coloration. If you can’t find garnet paper, sand by hand with the grain using 220 grit instead. With inlaid wood or parquet, you can’t sand with the grain. In those cases sand the direction of the longest side, and use finer paper. For most woods 220 will be adequate even against the grain, but if scratches show, which they might on very hard woods like ebony or boxwood, don’t be afraid to move up to 320 or even 400 grit.

When your garnet paper starts to dull, use it to sand any end grain. The dull garnet paper will burnish the end grain to help prevent it from absorbing excessive amounts of stain. It won’t be the same as flat grain, but every little bit helps.

When the sanding is done, brush or vacuum off the bulk of the dust, then remove the rest with a damp cloth. For a variety of reasons, I find a soft cloth lightly dampened with water works better than commercial tack cloths. It is cheaper, reusable after washing, and reduces static charge. Some tack cloths, via friction, can create a static charge on the surface of the wood, which in turn draws charged dust particles from the air back onto the wood. Dampness eliminates static. Additionally, with a damp cloth you never need worry that your tack rag will leave residue that is incompatible with your chosen finish.

You now have a clean, well sanded, dust free surface with all dents raised and all gouges puttied. You are ready to stain the wood.

Pre-Finishing

One of my favorite approaches is what is generally called “pre-finishing,” shorthand for pre-assembly finishing. That means you finish the parts of your project before they are glued together. There are a lot of advantages to this.

Finish a raised panel before it goes into the frame and it will never show a white line at the stiles when the panel shrinks. Applying finish to flat parts is far easier than to assembled pieces. Inside corners, the bane of finishing, become a thing of the past. Stain won’t hide in seams only to seep out later when you stopped looking for it, and glue spots can’t show up beneath the finish if gluing takes place after finishing. Another bonus is that glue squeeze out is easily removed from a finished surface.

Obviously, not all woodworking lends itself to this. Those joints that must be cleaned up or shaped after assembly can not be pre-finished, which is why I explained about removing glue spots. However, you would be surprised at the things that can be done. One box maker gleefully admitted to me that while he can’t pre-finish the outsides of his dovetail boxes, he does finish the faces of the boards that will form the inside of the box before applying glue to his dovetail joints. The result is a finished interior that is perfectly clean right up to the inside joint, with no drips, runs, cross grain sanding marks or finish puddles in the corners.

If you do finish prior to assembly, you must make sure you prevent stain or finish from getting on the active glue surfaces, since either will prevent glue from making a good bond. Mask the glue surfaces just shy of the edge of the joint so that when the piece is assembled, the finish will appear to continue under the joint. Mask just before you finish using blue painters tape, which is designed to stay on a long time and come off cleanly leaving no glue residue. I also like to clean the glue joint surface with some naphtha after removing the tape, just in case, then sand the glue surface lightly just before glue up.

Choosing Sandpaper

The three common grits we use are aluminum oxide, garnet, and silicone carbide. All three are sharp and cut well. Garnet is used primarily for hand sanding on raw wood and is almost never offered in sanding machine disks. The other two are appropriate for both raw wood and finish sanding.

Paper designed for sanding finish is often lubricated with a soap-like additive, usually zinc stearate, interlaced with the grit. Sanding is easier with these self-lubricating papers, and they don’t clog up as readily. You don’t need stearated paper for sanding raw wood, but it will not hurt either, so if you prefer to buy only lubricated paper, there is no harm in that. Stearated papers are sometimes color coded to distinguish them from regular sandpaper.

The grit size will be indicated by a number base on one of three common scales. The CAMI or ANSI system uses plain numbers; the FEPA system uses the same numbers but with a letter P in front of the number. In both, higher numbers mean finer grit. Paper that is coarser than 220 grit is the same in both scales, but as you go finer, the two systems diverge. Thus, P1200 paper in the FEPA system is roughly equivalent to 600 in the CAMI/ANSI system; P600 is equal to 360, and P400 equals 320. Looking for that P can be important with very fine grits.

The third scale is used only for very fine papers. Called micron grading, it goes the other way around; smaller numbers mean smaller grits and larger numbers mean coarser paper. Before the number is the lowercase Greek letter ‘mu.’ These papers are typically used for sanding finish, and are rarely sold in grits coarse enough for sanding raw wood.

Raising Grain

If you plan to apply waterbased finish or stain to the raw wood, consider raising the grain first. Once it is raised and leveled it will not raise again. After sanding to the last grit, wet the raw wood thoroughly with clean water, then wipe off all the water. The wood surface will be saturated but there should be no standing water or puddles left. Let it dry overnight.

When the wood is completely dry, it will feel furry. That’s because sanding leaves the ends of wood fibers shredded, and water makes them stand up. Cut back the raised grain fibers by sanding lightly with fine 400 grit paper. The object is the same as when you shave; you want to remove the raised hairs but you do not want to cut into the wood below. Sand only enough to smooth the raised fibers, and believe me, that will be very little sanding. If you sand too aggressively or use too coarse a paper you will simply shred the wood anew, and the newly shredded wood will then raise when it comes in contact with water. Raise the grain and smooth it right the first time and you won’t have to do it again.

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I use to think that smaller projects were easier it to build. Oh was I wrong! I’m now convinced that as a project gets smaller, the precision required goes up exponentially. That said, this is not a hard piece to build, but it does takes time and patience to get it all fit together precisely. I made enough goofs along the way to fill a book, and I learned that much too. You’ll benefit from my trial and error since I’ll tell you what worked for me, and a bit of what didn’t.

Potential Pitfalls

Cutting the mitered and beveled edges accurately and safely presents a problem. I built a small parts mitering jig to solve this. It’s a table saw jig guided by a miter bar. T-tracks, hold downs, and stops secure and position the parts for consistent receptive cutting. The jig is shown here and will be explained in detail in the next issue of the Woodworker’s Journal.

The lid hinge is another issue. Being set on beveled edges of 1/2″ thick stock means the screws have very little wood to bite. The hinge mounting screws must be cut shorter to about 1/4″ long to avoid penetrating through the outside of the box. Although a 1-1/2″ wide piano hinge is rather large for a small box like this, its screw mounting holes are further from the hinge barrel than on narrower piano hinges, and this a benefit. I keep thinking there’s a better, more demure hinge solution, but I’ve yet to find one.

The brass inlay was another problem to tackle. It’s designed to be pressure fit into a 1/8″ wide x 1/32″ deep groove. This is fine on a larger project were it could be hammered in its groove. But on a small piece like this, it would be too easy to break the joints by “banging” on the box. I routed the inlay grooves a smidgeon wider so I could press the inlays in by hand with minimal pressure, and I glued them down with CA (Cyanoacrylate) adhesive.

Constructing the Dresser Valet

Cut the Parts & Prep Them for Assembly

Figure 1: Use a table saw to rip the box’s front and back from the ash blank.

Make the blank (piece 1) that the lid, lid front, back and ends (pieces 2, 3, 4 and 5) will be cut from (see Figure 1, Ash Blank Layout). Rip the lid front and box back from the blank. Use a band saw to rough-cut away the waste pieces from the ripped pieces, and separate the box ends and lid from the center section of the blank. Set your band saw to 45° and rough cut the mitered crosscut ends. This helps to greatly reduce burning when you final cut them later. The beveled with-the-grain edges can be left 90° for now.

Figure 2: Rough cut the crosscuts at 90° using a band saw. This is safer than a chop saw or table saw.

Make a small parts mitering jig like the one shown here. Complete instructions for building this jig will appear in the next issue of the Woodworker’s Journal. The jig is very flexible with the use of T-tracks and hold-downs. It allows you to set your table saw blade at 90° while you cut the mitered and beveled edges of the valet parts. An 18″ adjustable miter bar is used to guide the jig in the table saw’s miter slot. I tested all of my saw blades and found that a new cutoff blade (typically used with a miter saw) worked best with no burning. All of my other saw blades burnt the wood to some degree. I found that if I used a very fast feed rate with those blades, I could minimize the amount of burn.

Figure 3: Rough cut the 45° mitered ends of the box parts. Leave a little bit of wood to get cleaned up later on the table saw.

Using the jig, crosscut the mitered ends of the lid, lid front, box back, and box ends. When cutting the ends of the lid, lid front and box back, mount a fence to the jig to define 90° to the blade. This also helps reduce tear out at the ends of the cuts. Clamp on a stop for repetitive cutting of lengths. Set the fence parallel to the saw blade when cutting the crosscut mitered edges of the box end pieces. Use the same procedures and cut the beveled with-the-grain edges on the box parts.

Figure 4: A small parts mitering jig and a super sharp cutoff blade are used to final cut the box’s 45° mitered ends and beveled edges.

Cut the front (piece 6) to it’s finished size. Layout and drill the dowel holes that join the front to the box ends. I used a self-centering doweling jig that drills 1/4″ dia. holes 3/4″ apart for the dowel holes in the front piece. I carefully laid out the centers of the dowel holes in the box ends, and drilled them using my drill press.

Remove the miter bar from the small parts mitering jig. Use the jig to support the box back (piece 4) while you rout the hinge mortise using a 1/2″ dia straight bit. Set stops to control the length of the hinge mortise. Test your setup on scrap wood. The depth of the mortise must be equal to the total thickness of the hinge when closed (measure the hinge barrel). Note, there is no hinge mortise cut in the lid.

Figure 5: The jig serves double duty to support the box’s back as the hinge mortise is routed using a router table, fence stops, and a straight bit.

Fabricate the handle and coin trough (pieces 7 and 10) (see Handle Template). Cut the groove in the coin trough using a 1″ dia core box router bit. Do this on a 12″ long work piece for safer routing. Use your router table with hold-ins and hold-downs. Make many passes slowly increasing the depth of the cut to 1/2″. Use a push stick and be careful, the work piece gets kicked a bit when it exits the cut. When you’re done cutting the groove, cut the coin trough to its finished length.

Finish sand the exposed surfaces of the front (piece 6) and the inside faces of the other box parts.

Assemble the Valet

Figure 6: Glue the lid front and lid together. Masking tape works great for mitered joints that would be otherwise hard to clamp.

Dry fit (no glue) the box back, front and box ends together (pieces 4, 5 and 6). Use masking tape to hold the rear mitered corners together. Set the lid and lid front in place, and check that everything fits well. Make any necessary adjustments. Then glue the box back, front and box ends together.

Figure 7: Rout the brass inlay grooves. The lid and box are temporarily joined with masking tape. The router table fence guides the box, and a miter gauge is used for support.

Glue the lid front to the lid (pieces 2 and 3). Use masking tape to hold the parts together as the glue dries. Make sure the joint is square.

Rout the brass inlay grooves. Temporarily adhere the lid to the box using masking tape. Mount an 1/8″ dia. straight router bit in your router table. Set the depth of the cut to 1/32″, and set the router table’s fence to the appropriate distance to cut the cross grain inlay grooves. Support the box with a miter gauge as you rout the grooves. Adjust the fence and make a second pass to slightly widen the grooves so the inlay pieces will go in easier. Change the fence setting to do the with-the-grain inlay grooves, and rout them. Test all of your setups on scrap wood first.

Figure 8: The bottom’s rabbet is routed using a large auxiliary router base plate for support. Make this cut using several passes to reach the final depth.

Rout the bottom’s rabbet in the assembled box. Mount a large auxiliary base plate to the base of your router. This will support the router by bridging the base across the entire box. Use a 5/16″ wide rabbetting bit and make several increasingly deeper cuts until you reach the final depth of 5/16″.

Attach the handle to the assembled lid, and then mount the lid. This step is tricky. Here’s how I did it: I screwed the piano hinge to the box so the hinge’s barrel was completely hanging over the rear of the box. Opening the hinge and laying the lid flap so it touches the box helps align it parallel. This hinge position leaves very little room for the depth of the screws. I used a hacksaw to shorten the screws to about 1/4″ long. I drilled shallow pilot holes for #4 screws, and then I carefully inserted the screws watching to be sure none penetrated through the rear of the box. This was very scary, but it worked!

Then came attaching the lid hinge flap to the lid. How can I do that so the lid aligns properly? I tried adhering double stick carpet tape to the hinge flap and pressing the lid in place. My hope was that it would hold well enough so I could align and open the lid to drill the screw pilot holes, but it didn’t hold. Then I tried a couple of dabs of hot glue. That held, but the hinge flap was misaligned due to the thickness of the hot glue. Then I remembered I had some super sticky peel and stick tape call SpeedTape made by FastCap. I tried that, and success, maybe too good. I used one long piece of SpeedTape, and it actually stuck too well and it was hard to get the hinge off of the lid! I suggest you use a couple of short pieces. Once the hinge and lid are aligned, drill the pilot holes, shorten the screws and insert them with light pressure. Then remove the hinge to prepare for staining and finishing.

Many Samples Ensure Staining Success

In the author’s shop, sanding is the first step in the finishing process. Remember, orbital sanders leave swirl marks, so a final hand sanding with the grain should occur right before applying stain.

This valet is a good opportunity to hone your finishing skills. As a peer of mine once said, “I spend a hundred hours building a fine piece, then in less than one hour I mess it up applying finish.” This does not need to be the case if you do your homework first. The key to success is to make test samples, more samples and even more samples. Know exactly what finish and stain you’re going to use, and how you’ll apply it, beforehand. Using your project as a testing ground is a huge mistake – but one we’ve all made.

Carefully mask off the wood where light-color stain will be applied so that when you apply the dark stain, it won’t bleed onto those areas. Trim off excess painter’s tape with a hobby knife.

Here’s how I approached staining and finishing the valet: I had pretty much decided on a maple color stain for the light areas, but I vacillated on the darker complementing stain. I picked an early American color and a red mahogany to test. I started by making an ash sample board, which I orbital-sanded to 220-grit. I divided the length in thirds and applied the three stain colors (see top photo). I let them dry 24 hours, divided the width in thirds, and applied three sample finishes (satin wipe-on poly, gloss wipe-on poly and gloss spray-on lacquer). The results showed that my maple color stain was a good choice, the early American color stain was not the color I wanted for the dark areas, the red mahogany color stain was good but too light, and the finishes were all fine.

I noticed sanding swirl marks in the darker stains (which is typical), so I knew I needed to straight-line hand sand prior to staining. I also know from experience that straight-line hand sanding produces darker staining results because it opens the grain more than orbital sanding with fine grits, and coarser grit hand sanding will make even darker results. I made more samples. This time, I orbital sanded to 220-grit, hand sanded with 150-grit and then 180-grit. I applied two coats of the red mahogany color stain, applied the lacquer, and that gave me the results I wanted. I made another sample to be sure the maple color stain would still be good for the light areas, and it proved to be spot on.

Apply the dark stain with a high quality natural bristle brush. The author used a 1″ badger brush, and it worked very well.

Even though all the finishes looked good, I decided to use the spray-on lacquer for a few reasons. It was very easy to apply, and it would be easy to get it into the nooks and crannies of the small valet. It dried relatively fast, had a nice build and sheen and was easy to sand and recoat. I feared wiping on a finish could drag some of the dark stain onto the light stain and mess up my hard work.

Gently wipe off the stain with a soft, lint-free cloth. Wipe with the grain. Dark stains are often hard to wipe evenly. Light strokes, and many of them, will help to evenly blend the stain.

Applying the Stain and Finish

Apply the light-color stain after the dark color stain has completely dried – wait at least 24 hours. Mask off the dark areas before applying the light color stain. Allow the light-colored stain to dry.

Follow the staining and finishing steps in the photos. Be very careful when you apply the stain so as not to smear it on the inside of the valet, which is intentionally left unstained. Also be very careful when sanding between the coats of finish. It’s surprisingly easy to sand through the finish and remove the stain, especially on edges. With dark stains, this really glares out. To avoid this problem, apply two light coats of finish without sanding between them. Use 320-grit sandpaper to gently remove any nibs in the second coat of finish. Then use an ultra-fine 3M Scotch-Brite® pad (or #0000 steel wool) to smooth the finish. Remove all dust, and then apply a third and final coat of lacquer. You’ll end up with a fine project!

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