Stain and Lacquer Finish for the Equipment Rack Table

I didn't learn my lesson in trying to stain the pine equipment rack and failing miserably. I had to read more about using shellac as a wash coat and then staining pine, didn't I?

Yes, I decided once again to take a shot at staining pine - this time with the newly-made table I made for the rack.

First I had to fill all of the countersunk screw holes. I used Parks wood filler and I like it.

Although, it does say "for floors" and this isn't a floor...

After filling the holes, I sanded the whole table with 120 then 220 grit paper on a sanding block (actually a square scrap piece of pine).

I had made a number of pencil marks on the parts as I was building the table to indicate where to drill holes and such. I (stoopidly, as it transpires) figured I'd erase them before I went to put the finish on. Ha ha. My otherwise reliable pencil eraser took exactly none of the marks off.

So I tried Simple Green, and it worked well.

Memo to self: next time, make your pencil marks much lighter.

Now we do a quick wipedown with naptha to get any remaining sawdust or finger marks off the wood.

The guy on the label sure looks like Toy Making Dad.

I mixed up some off-the-shelf clear shellac (2 lb. mix) with some denatured alcohol. I found a site with some interesting information about the ratio of solids to alcohol. Something I was not aware of at all.

For the record, I used 4 oz. of shellac and added about 8.8 oz. of alcohol to wind up with roughly 12.8 oz. of mix for a wash coat. I had more than enough.

Nice new Purdy brush which I'll dedicate to shellac use only.

I like how their brushes have the maker's initials on them, in this case, "SI" made my brush.

If you take care of your brushes they'll last a long time. I always mark mine for specific uses too so brushes used for paint stay separate from brushes for other stuff.

Now we put the shellac wash coat on.  Fun, huh?

After I was done, I cleaned the brush with denatured alcohol.

After the shellac dries, I brush on a coat of stain.

This time I went with "Black Cherry." It was actually a little to purplish for my taste, so I did a second coat - Dark Walnut - to make it more brown. Didn't take a picure of that.

Then I hit it with 5 coats or so of clear lacquer as a topcoat. (I could swear I took a picture of spraying the lacquer but I can't find it. You can visualize it if you wish).

The stain is still a little blotchy in places. But I think the wash coat helped. I probably should have done 2 coats of the shellac.

I'm not sure I'll try staining pine again. I like working with it and it's inexpensive, but it is problematic to finish. I just didn't want to paint it like I did with the rack.

I do like the color, and I guess I'll live with the blotchy. It does look sort of 'vintagy' I think.

Another angle.

The upside is the table is strong and will work perfectly for the rack. And I have a shelf too :-)