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Project: Ultimate Ultra Super Awesome Overclocked Computer Desk - 2 In


ultimatedesk

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  • 2 weeks later...

As an ME I am seriously jealous of your shop there, and ALL the tools. :( Your cat also seems to be as dumb as mine lying there in the sink... This project seems to be working out nicely. I can't wait to see the final build! :cheers:

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Hmm I like those round sharp things haha!

Hahah, me too - you should hear them spin up - they sound wicked awesome, seriously!

 

Cant wait till its done. :thumbsup:

Yayaya, same here omg!

 

Any update on this? It looks like it's coming along spectacularly!

Yup, here it comes! It's been particularly busy at home, and the next steps for the desk are fairly slow as well unfortunately.

 

As an ME I am seriously jealous of your shop there, and ALL the tools. :( Your cat also seems to be as dumb as mine lying there in the sink... This project seems to be working out nicely. I can't wait to see the final build! :cheers:

Oh I hear ya - I absolutely love visiting the shop, it's always a blast looking for a new and different way of accomplishing a task. Speaking of my dumb cat - she had kittens! One of the reasons I've been neglecting the updates recently!

 

So - it's been some time since my last update (What has it been.. 2 weeks? Geez!) but I haven't been idle at home, it's just that I was really busy (There are kittens running around now!) and I've been working with some staining techniques, which has been a long, learning process.

 

I did a bit of research and came across a good video over here: Link and I opted to give it a shot, because there apparently, is a tendency for maple to come out a little blotchy due to the tight grain, or something or other like that.

 

So I picked up some supplies:

 

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Made up a test board - some wood filler, some real maple trim, and one side sanded to 120 and the other sanded to 220:

 

img5433q.jpg

 

And, apparently, I was supposed to cut the shellac with some denatured alcohol. Something I was not able to find, and subsequently, I found out that it is actually quite difficult to obtain here in Ottawa. I did not realize at the time, that I could have cut it with methyl hydrate, which is something quite commonly available at the local Canadian Tire.

 

And, this is where things start to go wrong. Here is the shellac applied:

 

img5440p.jpg

 

Ok, not bad. Full strength. Ended up closing the grain structure completely, most likely. Here is the gel stain I chose:

 

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And, onto the wood:

 

img5441i.jpg

 

Wait 5 minutes, wipe off...

 

img5443j.jpg

 

Gross. Seriously? This is why you test on samples first. Look at that colour - it's practically pink!

 

How about a second coat.

 

img5445p.jpg

 

And why the heck not, we'll stain the back as well, where it hasn't been shellac'd.

 

img5446j.jpg

 

Huh...

 

img5447.jpg

 

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Now really. That was not quite what I was expecting. Time to get a new sample piece - no shellac, but sanded properly to 120.

 

img5449yn.jpg

 

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What's going on here? This is not really the expected "richness" of a dark gel stain like this, is it? Hmm..

 

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Doh! Looks like keeping the gel stain in the basement, where it is freezing, separated the contents. There is a visible layer of clear liquid on top of the stain - that shouldn't be there.

 

Staining attempt number 1? Failure.

 

1. If you're using shellac to seal, to avoid streaking and blotching - you MUST cut it

2. If you're going to use a gel stain, don't keep it in a cold environment before you're about to use it.

 

Well, time to put the stain upstairs for a little while, and maybe another trip to the hardware store... And just an fyi, this took me about a week just to do the 2 samples, since it's so cold, I can only do 1 coat per day, as it takes a long time to dry.

 

And here's a little something else:

 

feb1201.jpg

 

Cute, no? A litter of 5 - the first one was stillborn, so we've got 4 kittens, pretty exciting stuff. ;)

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Good luck with the staining, that sure doesn't look very appealing, a pink desk? :sick:

Heh yeah, totally not what I was expecting. I got the stain back to normal room temperature and stirred it for a few days however, and it made a drastic difference.

 

I like it where it says flammable... fire is so beautiful yet so dangerous :(

Uh oh - guess the local fire dept. knows you by first name? ;)

 

That's actually just a bit lighter in color than my desk. XD

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the colour... it's just not what I was looking for lol

 

Awww kitties! They are miniatures of my kitty gunner. :)

They are super awesome, I'll keep y'all in touch with their growth along with the desk lol

 

 

Some of you may have wondered - "You stained 2 small pieces of wood in the past 2 weeks?! That's all you have to show for progress on THE ULTIMATE DESK?!"

 

Well, not quite... Really - I did more, I swear.

 

As you all know, the first staining attempt went really poorly, so I immediately went out and started on a second staining attempt. This time, I purchased some pre-stain wood conditioner, as well as a traditional oil-based stain. I also set out to do this the right way. If I'm going to spend a week staining small samples, I might as well have something to show for it. I cut 8 small blocks of wood, and sanded them all to 120 grit, just like before, and tacked them all off.

 

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I had a plan this time - I was going to see what kind of colour combinations I could get with just 2 stains, and 1 wood conditioner (The gel stain, for what it's worth, had been mixed several times, and had been kept upstairs for a few days). Here is the wood conditioner I used. You can see in the background that it tints the wood just slightly.

 

img5462g.jpg

 

Here is the oil-based stain I picked up. It's a Minwax product, Red Mahogany.

 

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And of course, the Varathane Gel Stain that you've already seen, also, Red Mahogany.

 

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In this picture you can see a bit how the oil stain reacts to the wood conditioner. The wood conditioner seemed to have hardly any effect on the gel stain, most likely because gel stains don't really penetrate the wood the same as an oil stain.

 

img5464z.jpg

 

And in this picture you can see the whopping difference between the oil stain and gel stain, which are, strangely enough, supposed to be the same colour. The one on the left is the Minwax, and the one in the middle is the Varathane. Neither the first or second piece have wood conditioner on them. The piece on the right is wood conditioner + the Minwax oil stain.

 

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Here's the production line, the stain is still wet, I haven't wiped off the excess yet.

 

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And here is the result of 2 days of staining. (First day sanding, tacking, wood conditioner, first coat of stain, second day some of them got a second coat).

 

From left to right, here is what I did to get the different results (Some of them obvious, some of them pretty darn subtle).

 

1. Minwax Red Mahogany Oil Stain

2. Varathane Red Mahogany Gel Stain

3. Wood Conditioner + Minwax Red Mahogany Oil Stain

4. Wood Conditioner + Varathane Red Mahogany Gel Stain

5. Wood Conditioner + Minwax Red Mahogany Oil Stain + Varathane Red Mahogany Gel Stain

6. Wood Conditioner + Varathane Red Mahogany Gel Stain + Minwax Red Mahogany Oil Stain

7. Wood Conditioner + Minwax Red Mahogany Oil Stain x 2 Coats

8. Wood Conditioner + Varathane Red Mahogany Gel Stain x 2 Coats

 

Wow! It's pretty amazing the different shades you can get when using just 3 pretty simple substances.

 

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I then set about the next 4 or 5 days applying one coat of high gloss polyurethane each day (That was a long and boring process). Basically, get home from work, go downstairs for a whole 5 minutes, do a quick sanding, tacking, and another light coat of poly, done for the day, wait for the next day.

 

Here's the final result of Staining Attempt Number Two. Please keep in mind, they are not in the same order that I mentioned above.

 

img5501g.jpg

 

img5511j.jpg

 

There's no doubt that I will use this method again in the future. I also now have a great set of staining samples for maple plywood that I will surely fine handy in the future (They are all marked on the back what the process / stain used was).

 

Guess what though. None of them really came out the way I wanted. I'm still in search for that rich, deep, red mahogany / cherry look, and these just won't cut it (Though I admit, I do like #5 and #6, but maybe only because of their really spectacular grain pattern).

 

See you next time for Staining Attempt Number Three! *sigh*

 

 

 

Oh - and here's another snap of the kittens - they are 20 days old when this picture was taken, and they had just opened their eyes only a couple days beforehand.

 

feb2701.jpg

 

I won't be posting another update until next week, as I've decided to take a trip to the East Coast to celebrate St.Patricks day! I'll be in Halifax if anyone wants to go for a few pints! Have a great weekend everyone!

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minwax is amazing, i used it on my floors, and a 5 years later, still looks great, very durable.

 

the minwax i used was more like a combo all in one stain plus clear/lacquer thing im not for sure, it was a while ago

 

As for the fire thing, the fire department happens to know my name, and yes my mother happens to love her new kitchen, lol

As for dan the gamer, i hope you have insurance on your house, lol

Edited by camaro_dude15

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