Folding Wooden Stepladder

Step 13 Finishing

I finished all the pieces with three coats of thinned polyurethane (50% polyurethane, 50% turps). You can buy commercial wipe-on polyurethane, but it is easy to make yourself from standard polyurethane.

The thinned polyurethane was easy to apply and I had no trouble with brush-marks. You do need to be alert for runs and drips though.

I sanded lightly between coats with 320 grit sandpaper.  I also took the time to sand out any drips/runs.

Finishing can be the most boring part of a project, but doing a good job at this step can make a big difference to the finished product.

To speed things up, I:

- Wore an old coat to protect my clothes (no need to put on old clothes for each coat)
- Wore disposable gloves (no need to wash polyurethane off hands)
- Used cheap, throwaway foam brushes (no brushes to clean)

Comments

[jeffeb3]

I'm a real rookie at finishing, but when I last tried poly with foam brushes, I ended up with a lot of bubbles. I found some water based poly, and it's a lot easier to wash out of the brushes.