Table - Days 4,5, and 6

After drying for a full day, the super thick layer of shellac looked like crap. It had some awful lap marks and was truly uneven. Yuck. So I whipped out the sand paper and spent over two hours sanding by hand trying to get out every little imperfection. About 10 sheets of paper and a bout with Carpal Tunnel later, it looked like this:


The dust was everywhere, including in my lungs and sinuses. Should've worn a mask...gotta love retrospect.

I clean it all up, mopped (I've mopped more in the last week than in the last year!) and tack-clothed it again. Before putting on another coat of shellac, I thinned it even more with methyl hydrate.


Now, notice how I set up this shot ON the table I'm trying to restore?

Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Think about it. I took the bottle of finish solvent and poured it out on top of the damn finish itself! After I took the pic, I lifted off the bottle and can, only to see some lovely rings and splatters melted into the table top. Duh.

(You'll have to imagine what the marks looked like, since I was so pissed off about it I didn't take a picture.)

So after calming down, I carefully applied another THIN layer, let it dry a few hours, and sanded with 220 grit. Then I wiped, swept, mopped, and tack-clothed again. Then I repeated the whole process another 4 times.

By the end of it, I was pretty good at laying on a thin, even layer of shellac and the table was all glossy.





So now that it was all glossy and gorgeous, I was done, right?

Wrong. Time to bring this out...


...and rub off all that pretty shine. Gloves please:



Now it has to cure for another 2 days and I can rub in the wax-- the last step. I'll have the final reveal ready later this week!