Lantern Clock

Step 3: The wood

found some great slabs of wood on ebay, bought some maple and walnut.
I planned on sandwiching the two contrasting colors of wood.
rough cut the shapes I needed, using a disc sander and a spindle sander I shaped the outside and inside curves.
I registered and drilled some through holes common to all the slabs, Inserting  all thread rods, with washers and bolts allowed me to mechanically tighten and physically lock the slabs together so they can be mounted together into the mill and machined as one piece later to have the ability to disassemble and wire,
components are temporarily mounted on pegs and posts and the clear coat process begins.
make sure you are in a well ventilated space
I brushed on 1-2 coats of clear catalyzed lacquer (cardinal), letting it all soak in. after it hardens start the exhausting sanding process
be cautious not to use a heavy grit, the rule is not to sand through your clear coat layers, if you get to wood you have gone too far.also be carefull not to let clear drops harden, dont spray too heavy, to spray I used a cheap ($14) harbor freight HVLP spray gun and it worked as good as one of my Binks guns.
I used 400 -1500grit through the sanding process.later used automotive polishes of varying grits, hand and machine buffed parts
2 coats brushed- sand- spray -sand -spray -sand -spray -sand -spray -sand -spray- polish buff.
very time consuming took me days to complete but the more work you put into this step the better it looks in the end.....keep it up