What is everyone's favorite sanding sealer. I have used timber mate and a few others but, always looking for a better option.
I hardly ever use it. When I did it was Watco lacquer. Most times two or three wet coats of your finish level things out.my last coats are usually low pressure fogged on at a distance = matte finish.
I just use a spray lacquer between 80, 120, and 220 finish sanding, and it serves its purpose showing any sanding marks or imperfections.
But for filling grain slots it's best to use something with more solids like high gloss polyester, or high gloss auto clear coat. Different products sand differently and may take longer to cure before sanding is possible, and may require using a reducer and a tad bit more activator in the mix. Some deep slotted grain like Wenge or paduke can take as much as 3 wet coats to level out. Depends on your finish material.
I don't know about the rest of you guys, but this finish material is slowly getting too damn expensive. It's jumped up 30% in the last 2 years. My favorite auto clear coating is up to $150 per gallon with the 1 quart activator. It's a 4:1 mix. So I'm actually getting 1.25 gallons. I typically use about 10% reducer (lacquer thinner) with this euro clear finish.
There are a lot of different types of high quality clear coating materials out there. The trick is finding one that is user friendly that doesn't show the different coats if you sand through into the last coat, or heaven forbid down to bare wood in spots. The high end epoxy base clear coats are terrible about that. It sticks out like a turd in a punch bowl. Epoxy base finishes also seem to yellow out over time and not stay clear. It's tricky to work with. Laying it down too heavy without the right amount of reducer, and spraying multiple coats without curing and sanding, can result in a foggy finish instead of clear. I personally don't mess with that stuff anymore. Not user friendly at all. Kirk
I sand all my risers to 600, some even higher. Then I apply 4 coats of Mas epoxy, waiting for each to cure to get the stickiness of masking tape, then applying the next coat the same way. I let the epoxy cure for a few days, then sand till perfectly smooth with all pores sealed. This method has always worked for me!
Quote from: Richard Korte on Today at 12:19:25 AMI sand all my risers to 600, some even higher. Then I apply 4 coats of Mas epoxy, waiting for each to cure to get the stickiness of masking tape, then applying the next coat the same way. I let the epoxy cure for a few days, then sand till perfectly smooth with all pores sealed. This method has always worked for me!
Wow! Are you doing high gloss finish? I rarely go finer than 220 grit on the wood, and only to 320 on a hand rubbed satin finish. 0000 steel wool is nice for using a high gloss, high solids finish and polishing it to a rich satin too. I do not do high gloss finish on bows at all anymore. Way too much time involved getting it perfect. I lost my ass on every high gloss bow finish I ever did taking a week to get it right.
When I spray a finish on a bow, I'm done in in hour and it's ready to handle in 24 hours without marring the finish using auto clear coat. You guys can have that epoxy finish...
Btw... if you want a drop dead gorgeous high gloss finish on a bow. Try using true oil sometime. It's not as durable, and requires more maintenance, but you can get a mirror finish with that stuff a lot easier than epoxy.