Vodka Bottle Coffee Table

Step 13: Finishing

I finished the wooden parts by wiping on five 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.  You can also sand out any drips/runs.

Finishing can be the most boring part of a project.  To speed things up, I:

- Hung the shelves from the ceiling in my workshop to make it easy to apply finish to both sides of the shelves at the same time.
- 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)

I did a few more coats on the tops of the shelves, where the wear will be.  I did the final coat with the shelves horizontal on my sawhorses, so there would be less chance of runs.

The polyurethane came out looking very shiny and plastic-looking (I prefer danish oil finishes), but it will be a tough coating which should work well against the mugs and beer bottles that the coffee table will encounter.