Replies

1. 
   RW | Mar 01, 2003 08:22am | #1

   On a scale of 1 to 10, for ease of rubbing out if nitro lacquer is a 9, poly is about a 2. Part of the issue I suspect is the multiple coats of satin. Each coat has flatteners in it. Accumulated to a great enough thickness, you might as well have put flat on. Each succesive layer dulls the sheen. If you try this again down the road, use gloss until the final coat, then the satin.

   Technically, you can rub out poly, I just don't believe it's a very accepting finish. For succesive grits, what I use on lacquer is 400, 600, medium, then fine pumice, rottenstone, and that takes it to about a satin. For gloss, like a high gloss, automotive polishes, then buff it with a lambs wool pad and wax. You can duplicate the same idea with only wet or dry papers, if you want to try to find papers up to 1500 grit or so. I think the powders are a tad more forgiving of minor blemishes in the surface of anything less than 100% dead on perfectly flat. (This is what I call DOBA - Dead on ba11z accurate!)

   " I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers." Kahlil Gibran

1. 
   dovetail3 | Mar 02, 2003 03:51am | #4

   RW: How right you are. I tried rubbing out with auto polish and the results were

   awful. I'm going to bite the bullet and recoat with a gloss.

   Thanks

   Ken

2. 
   forestgirl | Mar 01, 2003 07:31pm | #2

   Something relevant I had read in several place, and finally had explained in a thread here recently:  A better finish is achieved if you use gloss or semi-gloss for the last coat, rub it out, then bring it back to the gloss level you want.  The expanation was that the gloss finishes are actually harder than the satin, stronger so-to-speak.

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl   ;-)

3. 
   Glendo | Mar 02, 2003 03:50am | #3

   After leveling with the 400g, apply a heavy coat of wax, slap a green abrasive pad onto a RO sander, sand lightly, repeat with a white pad a bit more agressively, let the wax dry and buff.

   Glendo.