Lectern Day 5 – Delivered
Before applying the second coat of polyurethane, I have to sand down the first coat with 400 grit paper to smooth out the surface. Even though this thing was inside a tent, it still has dust nibs stuck in the finish all over. If I don’t sand between coats, it will look fine, but feel rough to the touch.
After sanding all of the nooks and crannies, I wiped the whole thing down with a rag, just to remove the dust. Anything I miss will melt into the next coat.
Then I fired up the sprayer and had the second coat applied in under a minute.
I also sanded and applied a second coat to the top as well.
It actually takes me longer to brush the coat on the top than it does to spray the rest.
Now that I am done with the sprayer, I need to clean it up. The only thing I dislike about using the sprayer with solvent-based finish is cleaning with Lacquer thinner. Water-based finish just needs to be rinsed off with water, but it just doesn’t look the same.
After the lectern dried over night, I flipped it over to finish the bottom. I could have left it, because it is not ever seen, but I wanted to seal the base to prevent any moisture from entering the wood down there. Two quick coats of shellac took care of it, and it was dry after ten minutes.
To make the lectern easier to move, I am attaching some hard plastic slide feet. They have adhesive on them, so they just peel and stick. The lectern will be sitting on carpet, so this will also help prevent the carpet from snagging a splinter it is moved.
Time to peel off the masking tape to do the final glue-up.
I used spring clamps to mark the edge locations so I can easily center it in place once the glue is applied.
I spread the wood glue and dropped the top in place.
I used my off-cuts again, as clamping cauls, but this time I placed a strip of leather beneath them to prevent marring the freshly finished surface. I looked around the inside to see there were any gaps that were not closed up with the clamps, but no, it was a perfect fit.
Last step is to buff out any remaining dust nibs from the final coat of poly. This is easily accomplished with a wad of brown paper, thoroughly crumpled and vigorously rubbed on all surfaces.
And this one is complete.
I had some errands to run today, so I dropped off the lectern at its new home in the daily mass chapel at Saint Peter’s of Libertytown, MD. Now the lectern finally matches the altar and tabernacle stand I built five years ago.
Midnight Woodworking 
It is just beautiful it brings a sense of completeness to the Daily Mass Chapel.