Maple & Purpleheart crib – day 12
I let the first coat of water-based poly cure over night. Before I can spray on the second coat, I need to sand everything down with 400 grit sand paper. Two reasons for this: Since my spray booth has no ventilation, the over-spray floats in the air and lands on the curing finish, leaving a rough texture. The second reason is the fact that the water in the poly, swells the grain of the wood. It will typically only do this on the first coat, so when it is sanded, it shouldn’t swell the grain again.
Once all was smoothed back down, I applied the second coat of poly with my sprayer.
Several hours later, the finish is dry enough for me to keep working. I think two coats will be sufficient, so all I need to do is buff the surface to remove any dust or excess finish that may have settled on the surface after it started drying. For this, I use a crumpled up brown paper bag. When rubbed vigorously on all the finished surfaces it smooths away any of the roughness.
Adam wandered down to see how the crib was coming, so I put him to work, removing the masking tape, and buffing the feet.
Next step is to glue the feet in place, on the unfinished bottom surface of the headboard and footboard.
After making sure everything is straight, and no glue is squeezing out, I clamped the feet in place.
While the glue was drying, I went ahead and applied the first coat of poly to the unfinished areas.
After about an hour, I came back and pulled the clamps. I gently sanded the brushed on areas and applied the last coat of finish.
All done, and just in time. Baby Charlotte Grace was born early this morning. Everyone is doing well and should be home soon. When they are all settled in, I will be delivering the crib. Maybe I will be able to get a few pictures of the crib, all set up, and in use…
Midnight Woodworking 