A few months ago I watched Andy Rae polish a finished walnut slab to a high gloss on The Woodworking Channel. I believe he was using 3M polishing pads on a Festool ROS. I’ve searched usual suspects for the pads or something similar but haven’t located anything. Did anyone see the program and know what he used? Can you recommend another product that can be used on a 5″ ROS to “rub out” a cured finish to high gloss?
Thanks,
John
Replies
John,
I've got a RAS which I use to polish finishes sometimes. It has a pad especially made to hold various wool bonnets and I apply various grit polishes to the bonnet to polish things.. Polishes come in all sorts of "grits" and can be used just like sanding grits in that you start out with a coarse grit and wind up using your finest grit .
Is that what you are asking about?
I refuse to pay the cost of cable TV, so I didn't see the show. But Mirka makes an abrasive called Abralon which I know is used commercially to buff/polish wood finishes among other things. It goes up to 4000 grit and is available in 5" discs. It's foam-backed to aid in holding the lubricant right where you need it.
Abralon works great just as it comes out of the box. Depending on the wood, a progressive series of Abralon will actually polish the wood to a gloss without any compound or polish. I sand with a ROS to 220 before going to 500 grit Abralon. I've used it on cherry, walnut, and maple. But it's expensive -- $50 a box (?). Usually I put a coat of oil on after using 1000 grit Abralon.
Kevin,
About the only thing I watch on tv is cable channels (history channel, discovery, arts & entertainment, etc.) so I don't know how you do it unless you just don't watch at all. Nothing on the networks is worth the time except for football.
But anyway, today is your lucky day! Click here http://www.thewoodworkingchannel.com/ to watch all the woodworking shows you want for free! All day, every day!
Enjoy, Rob
Thanks for your replys guys.
I'm leaning toward Abralon. The pads Andy used looked like silicon carbide wet/dry paper on a soft backing with hook and loop for attachement. I don't think they were "grit" rated but "micron" rated maybe. He worked thru 3 or 4 progressive "grits" and when finished had a mirror surface on the finish. Maybe I can do the same with the Abralon. I've got a 40x60 tabletop to do and want the aid of the ROS.
John
Rob,
Mostly I'm a PBS junky. This Old House and the Antiques Roadshow are two of my all-time favorite TV shows. Although The New Yankee Workshop and The Woodwright's Shop are regular views too. Plus I'm an avid cookbook collector and love the cooking shows they have on weekends. The News Hour has long struck me as less biased than any of the network or cable news programs. And of course there is Charlie Rose in the late evenings. He's by far the best interviewer I've ever seen in my lifetime and I really dig that kind of thing when it's done by a highly intelligent person like Charlie. And of course there are the British comedies on Saturday night. Well, and on Sunday night they show "best of" shows of the old Monty Python stuff which is insanely funny in their trademark goofy sorta way. I just love PBS, particularly with the local programming we get with OPB. Some of it is boring. Some of it is mind-numbingly boring. But most of it I very much enjoy... and it's free!
Here's the thing, though. I would dearly love to watch Discovery and the History Channel and even A&E and others. But I'm a single parent and I know damn well that my youngest (13 going on 23) would be watching a lot of stuff from basic cable that I'd really rather she not watch while I'm at work or commuting home (I work 40 miles away and commute through Portland to get to and from work). My oldest is 19 and old enough to make her own decisions. But she works too and will soon be moving into her own place. So my not paying for cable is as much a parental thing as it is a financial thing.
Kevin
Oh! but cable makes it extremely easy for you to block anything you don't want them to watch.. with the remote they give you you block all the channels and your kid can't see them unless they can figure out your password.
I don't have cable! too expensive for me.. I have satelite, cheaper, bigger selection, better signal and if you bundle it with other stuff that you already have darn near free.
Oh and they offer deals where they give you the equipment and install it free in up to 4 rooms Free. (God. I love that word! It's a little dish that you won't notice up on your roof..
History, Discover, and Disney chanel are absolute requirements with kids.. I love Turner Classic movies where you see full length movies without any commercials lot of the older 40's and 50, 60, and some 70's classics. Nothing more offencive than darn! I love Speed channel but I'm a car guy.. there are all sorts of sports, not only the currant stuff but vintage games as well.. Chance to see some of the greats at their prime..
Maybe. But my kids are very tech savvy. My oldest works as a software tech support person. That was her first job right out of highschool.
One small example: I have my own computer (in my room) password protected. My oldest got ahold of a CD with some program on it that allowed her to use my computer and then let my youngest use my computer to surf online while she was using their computer. The program completely bypassed my Windows version and the password protection. When I found out about it she told me that it didn't allow her access to any of my files or programs. But I have no doubt that she could have gotten ahold of something that would allow her to do that if she'd really wanted to.
She lived with her mom until she was 13. Her mom and her mom's ex-boyfriend had connections on the fringes of the hacker community. For several years there I had free access to code-breaker CDs for all of the popular software programs, from games to business programs. I never took them up on it, but this is the environment in which my oldest first became computer literate. She could type 130 wpm at 13 years of age! By the time she was in highschool the standard charts didn't go high enough to measure her typing speed. And she'd never taken a typing class until highschool when it was just an easy credit for her to get.
Fortunately she's got better ethics than her mother and sticks with the legal stuff now days, as far as I know. But she's also a teenager... who is way too smart and computer savvy for her own good. And of course, being a teenager, the universe revolves around her by definition. LOL
Whatever password protection cable offers would more than likely have only posed a minor irritation if she'd really wanted to get through it.
Kevin
If she's that clever than she has access to much rougher stuff on the computer than you can see on TV. ON TV it's all passive stuff whereas on the computer she can contact these creeps and perverts.. If she avoids that then she'll avoid the stuff on TV.. By using your password you are in effect telling her not to do it.. If she's gonna do it then she'll be watching the really rough videos they have on the web not the bland stuff on most TV shows..
I looked at the cost of my cell phones, the cost of the internet (even with dial up), my long distance phone costs (and I use those cheap ones) and I found that with expanded satilite It cost me less than an extra $10.00 a month for it, the whole bundle!.. With that $10.00 I got call waiting, voice messaging, and caller ID plus High speed internet. I had a choice of 6 things to select from.
The trick is you have to buy a bundled package. Now instead of sending a check off to the internet, one for the phone, one for long distance, and another for satilite, you pay one check for everything that check is only $10.00 higher with satilite than the other stuff is by itself.. .. I retain all my providers.. I keep AOL with their ability to screen most of the crude stuff out, my local phone company and phone number, I keep direct TV (actaully I liked Dish better but Dish sold off my service to Direct.
The good stuff availabvle on satilite is really really good. For family movies watch Hallmark, as wholesome as there is.. Discovery is fascinating and History channels gives great lessons on what happened when and why.. all great family stuff.. You still keep PBS and local network channels.. Hey! There is a channel that's all cartoons like we grew up on.
I have the home shopping chanels and religous stuff blocked as well as a lot of stuff that I find boring (like football and other stick and ball sports) .. but only on satilite will you get to watch a show about restoring old farm tractors and steam locomotives.. There are channels that will teach you french cooking, As a Do It yourselfer, they have really neat shows.. want to know how to build a strawbale house or log home? want to know about tile work or heating equipment? needle point, German cooking, landscaping, plumbing, Italian cooking, fishing, Alaska wilderness, Gold prospecting (modern day) well the list is virtually endless.. If you like PBS (and I do) think of it as expanded PBS or PBS on steriods..
Oh and you get CNN, CNBC, and all those other 24 hour news shows.
I can see two or three movies a night that I would normally have to go rent. That alone is well worth the extra $10.00 a month!
I'm with Kevin and Jimma - Abralon is the way to go. It makes finishing a breeze!
I use them 'dry' and start at about 500 grit, moving up to 4,000, depending on the luster I want. I find they last a long time if I blow them out with compressed air, though Mirka says you can wash them. I've used them on both my Porter Cable 4" and my Festool Rotex. They are available from Homestead Finishes (Jeff Jewett) and I believe, Woodworkers Supply.
Frosty
You can also get wool pads for Bosch random orbit sanders and use paint polishing compounds like McGuire's. I have done this and it works really well to get a mirror finish once you go through all of the steps.
Hal
http://www.rivercitywoodworks.com
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