Finishing Aids
9th in a series of articles by Barb Siddiqui

Sticky fingers and wiped stains on blue jeans just seem to go with the messy chore of finishing. Without a professional finishing setup, many of us just have to 'make do.' Here are a few tips to make it a little easier.

One long-standing woodworker's trick to protect your bench top during finishing jobs, is to attach a common roller blind to the end of your workbench. Pull it up over the bench top and tack the end to the other side to catch drips, then simply flick off the dried paint and roll the blind back out of the way when through.

Instead of setting completed projects flat on newspapers to stain or paint them, it is better to raise them up off the surface so you can reach beyond the bottom edge without runs or drips collecting there. From your wood scrap bin, select thick cutoffs and angle-cut them at forty-five degrees on two sides, giving you three-inch long triangular shapes to set under each corner or leg of a workpiece.

Another method is to take a common pine 1 x 4 (any similar material will do, really) and drive slim nails through it along a central line every two inches or so. Don't get too near the ends of the board or the wood may split. Fix up two to four of these boards to a desired length (18" is good) and you can set them up on a table or bench top to hold up finished panels, drawers or single boards you may need to stain. The nail points will be fine enough to leave no marks on the underside of the workpiece.

If you tap the point of a small nail centered on the edges of a workpiece, you can use them to grip the wet-finished piece, lift and turn it over above the nail boards, then set it down and finish the other side. Remove your 'handles' later, after the piece is dry.

Common pegboard will work for this, too. Just go buy a bag of golf tees and place one in every third hole, or where you need them, and turn the points up to support your project for finishing. I have heard that scattering a child's jacks will work, also.

'Lazy susan' hardware is available at all home or hardware stores. Plates with rings of ball bearings can be attached to two pieces of scrap plywood so that a project can easily be rotated for finishing. Rockler Hardware sells a 3" square model for only ninety-nine cents that will support up to 200 lbs.

If you have a compressor for spray finishing, or want to use spray cans on smaller projects, a cardboard booth to catch the overspray is just the ticket (be sure to wear an appropriate mask.) Take a 20" box fan, turn it around backward, aiming at an open window or out the open garage door so it is pulling air away from you, and tape a 20"x20" furnace filter on the back of the fan, facing you. Cut cardboard for the bottom, sides and top, about 20" wide and angled to surround the fan like a bonnet. Tape it together, and to the fan, with duct tape.

If you set your lazy susan inside this cardboard box spray booth, you'll have an ideal set up for smaller projects. The fan will draw fumes away from you as you work. You can enlarge this idea (refrigerator cartons can be cut up) as a surround for spraying chests of drawers or carcase work supported on sawhorses or discarded cable spools.

For the final polishing or waxing of a completed project, lay old blankets down on your assembly table or work surface to avoid scratching the bottom side of the workpiece. Movers' blankets are ideal for protecting a new finish as you buff it up for that final shine.

When finishing, remember to take good care of brushes and equipment. Always hang oily rags out fully open to dry before discarding them, so any flammable solvents can evaporate. Be sure you have lots of cross-ventilation, and don't breathe in those fumes!.