The applique pieces will be glued on after the rest of
the table is finished so I need to provide a lacquer free area for good glue
adhesion. This is accomplished by
masking off an area prior to spraying the lacquer. To speed up the process I made some templates
to accurately mark where the tape goes. This
is the one for the top of the legs along with the masked result.
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| Template & Masking |
There are 24 applique pieces on the four legs plus one on each of the outer rails. Here they are with the masking done. As a joke I sent this photo to my son asking him what he thought about going with blue applique pieces. He replied that lime green one’s would probably look better.
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| Masking for Applique Install |
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| Spraying Outside |
I got a lucky break in the weather so moved outside to
give the legs their first couple of coats of lacquer. It took me maybe 45 minutes to set everything
up mix the lacquer, spray the pieces put everything away and clean up. Way, way faster than using the
air-brush. In the photo the leg is
sitting on a lazy-susan. It easily
allows me to turn the leg as needed to keep the light just right for
spraying. Three coats later they were
done.
The dye, stain and lacquering of the Outer and Top Rails
went smoothly. I did put four coats of
lacquer on these pieces as they will be subjected to more wear and tear than
the previous parts.
That left just the top.
After the problem with the tiny hills and valleys on the face of the
Outer Rails I gave the tops another sanding with the 220-grit paper then gave
the faces a close inspection looking for any potential problems. Seeing none I started on dyeing the hidden
faces first. Sure enough on the second
leaf a whole series of fine scratches appeared.
They were very small, even smaller than the pores in the wood and I just
could not see them until they were highlighted by the dye. Reality is they are probably only a few thousandths of an inch deep but the dark dye just highlights every little
imperfection. Solution is to pull out
the sander and sand until they are no longer visible, probably only a couple
minutes work. The dye is reapplied and
blended into the original application.
All told in the 8 faces I had probably three instances where a problem
showed up.
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| Small Scratches in Leaf & Repaired Piece |
This is the setup I used for spraying the leaves. Only difference is when I was spraying the
garage door was open. As you can see
there is a lot of light from different directions on the surface. I need that because I use the reflections to
judge when I have applied an even “wet” coat.
Remember the lacquer is clear so the indicators of when the right amount
of material is applied are pretty subtle.
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| Leaf Spraying Setup |
While waiting for a break in the weather I checked the
applique pieces to make sure none had warped but some
just did not seem right. They looked a
little wider than what I remembered they should look like. I did some measuring and yep all 24 pieces
that go on the legs were the wrong size.
Earlier in post seven I had done some testing and decided to narrow the
applique pieces by 1/8”. Well, that
change never made it to my drawings so when I checked them for sizing I had the
old measurements. Fortunately, they were
too big rather than too small. Simple
matter of ripping them to the right size, routing a new round over on the cut
edge and sanding. Not a huge problem but
it took about 2 hours of work to fix. To
double check I taped a couple of the pieces on the leg and they looked like what
I remembered. So here I was waiting on
the weather before I could finish spraying the leaves, a photo of the leg with
neutral colored applique pieces, a comment from my son that that lime green
would look good as an applique color and Photoshop all just waiting to be
used. A sure recipe for a prank with the
result being a doctored photo of a leg with lime green applique pieces as my son had requested J . His reply was, "Okay, I think we can safely eliminate the lime green option at
this point. Goodness does that hurt the eyes, hah!”
I finally got my break in the weather and over a couple
of days gave the leaves their last coats of lacquer. A few days later an 8,000 grit wet sanding
pad did the final polish work and they were done.
In post #20 I had devised a way to seal the leaves
against spillage using weather-stripping.
Now that the mounting strips are done and the finish has had a chance to
cure I added the peal and stick weather-stripping.
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| Top, Test Weather-stripping for Leaf Joints - Bottom, Actual Application |
A more realistic set of tests for the applique pieces
followed. They consisted of the body dye
mix with various quantities of black added.
The best two were stained with gel and given two coats of lacquer. From those two the best was selected and
temporally taped on one of the legs. A
final review with my son, his OK and at last all the color decisions were
done.
I could now start the dye, stain and lacquer finishing
process on all 28 of the pieces. Here
they are dyed, stained and ready for lacquer.
When I sprayed lacquer on the small test piece like those on the far
right rather than spraying a nice even coat on the HVLP sprayer blew them
across the room. Funny now, not so much
at the time. I fixed that problem by
taping them down to the scrap piece they are setting on.
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| Finished Applique Pieces Ready to Spray |
All in all, with working around the weather and the sheer
number of pieces the finishing process took the better part of a month and more
than a gallon of lacquer. I am happy
with the results but it sure took a long time.
With the applique pieces finished I could start attaching
them. Using some simple jigs for consistent placement I glued and pin nailed them into place.
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| Jig for Installing Applique Pieces |
The pin nails are only about 22 thousandths of an inch
thick but the shiny reflection off their end stood out against the dark finish. A dab of dark putty killed that.
Here is what a leg and the outside rails look like with
the applique pieces applied.
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| Applique Pieces Installed |
This completes the last bit of work on the table before
delivery which will be after it warms up in Arkansas. Below are all the parts and pieces except for the playing surface/pad.
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| All Table Pieces Ready to Pack |
Next Up – Packing & Installation
