I recently took on a job to refinish an upright piano lid that the customer tried to fix himself and messed up. The top is mahogany veneer and the edges poplar.Istripped everything off and sanded to 320. I filled the grain with bartly dark grain filler and let sit overnight. I sanded that again with 320 and applied a very thinned sanding sealer to prevent splotching. I sanded that lightly and stained with a mix of 2 part behlen med brown mah,1 part Mohawk brown mahogony,and 1 part Mohawk brown maple, and some retarder to eliminate streaks. I let that sit over night and when I sanded it the stain came up in the dust and left bare spots sanded everything off and did the same thing again but with almost no retarder and let sit for 2 days.Same problem.I sanded everything down again and reapplied the stain. The sealer I used is the bottom of the can and on some occasions I threw what was in the gun back in the can and it’s possible that it is diluted to the point that the thinner caused the dye stain to draw up into the sealer coat.Idon’t know.Whatever I do next has to work,I’m running out of time. Any thoughts? thanks pianoal
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I'm confused at your schedule. It is hard to add a dye over an oil-based grain filler like the Bartley. It leaves the wood fairly well sealed itself. Then you are sealing further with a sanding sealer. Therefore the dye (I assume this is the NGR ) isn't going where you want it, into the wood, it is resting on the sanding sealer. I think thats why it just sanded off.
If I were starting from the beginning, I would first dye the wood to the appropriate base color, then I would lightly seal the dye, and then make my last color coat the filler. You can stain after water-based filler, but not nearly so well over oil-based filler. I would then let the filler cure for 48 hours or more and then apply top coats.
Since you are working with veneer you can't just sand this back past the filler, so you have to work differently. You need to think in terms of toner and glaze rather than dye and stain. I assume from your use of sanding sealer that you intend to spray top coats of lacquer. As a toner, you might to try something like mixing NGR dye with lacquer, and then thinning this to a very thin finish. The idea is to start with a light color, and continue to add layers of the toner until you reach the desired darkness. Bob Flexner's book says to "sneak" up to the desired color.
I don't think that the
I don't think that the thinner caused the dye stain to draw up into the sealer coat.
Sanding after staining seems to be the problem. Try repairing the bare spots with some stain and a brush. Let dry - seal using a sealer recommended to go over the type of stain you're using then begin your finishing schedule.
SA
I don't quite understand how
I don't quite understand how these old threads get cycled to the top, with Just Posted times, until you look at the original post and see a 2005 date. Stranger still I'm not at all sure that was the original date since my response seems "fresher" in my mind than nearly 5 years old. Seems to me that this was something that came up a few months ago. There seems to be a date gremlin running around.
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