Lets build 2 tables together (2 Viewers)

CHP TD

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I thought I’d have some down time after the last build but I saw a free table on the road side and I thought “Hey I could do something with that” but I couldn’t really be bothered at the moment. After driving past it for a week I just thought “Stuff it, Why not?”



Then about a week later I saw that a guy was selling a pretty cool table and he dropped the price dramatically from $400 down to 140 negotiable. So it can’t hurt to go have a look right? The bones of this table were pretty good but it looked bad. Someone tried painting it and the paint was peeling off. But all the ugly bits could be fixed so I thought “Stuff it Why not put a lowball bid in?” this was one I could walk away from so I lowballed him and offered $60, he replied ill do it for $70? Darn I now own 2 tables…

The free one looks like this. this table will be known as table 5 or No 5 for short
The$70 one looks like this. this table will be known as table 6 or No 6 for short


No 5 looked like this and was pretty easy to sand, prep and paint so not much to report there.

Before

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After
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The table tops I’ll do together so I can order enough materials for both at the same time.

At this point I’m only focusing on the legs. I am a bit of a leg man actually.

Before i start i love knocking the ugly out of stuff. ive also had to learn ALOT of painting techniques.

I only use acrylic car paint because its sort of safe and it doesn’t cure. So it remains a little pliable which is important for wood. 2 pac paint is very poisonous and its illegal to use if you don’t have a booth. One of the base chemicals in 2 pac is cyanide (I think) and it or whatever the poison is) can be absorbed through the skin. Enamel dries hard, so u can’t use it on wood because it will crack over time. So acrylics are the only choice for this kind of work. Their down side is they never really cure, they only dry out. This means if you use thinners on dry acrillic it will remove the paint no matter how old it is. On 2 pac it won’t remove the paint. Enamel is the same.

Also the spraygun determines the finish. The technique is very important too. but cheap guys spit, drip, are inconsistent with the finish and you spend half your time fighting the settings. A hard learnt battle. There is a world of difference between a $50 and $300 spray gun. If you’re going to try this that is the MOST important tip I could pass on. Second tip get on utube and find out how to control a spraygun, how to paint essentially. I was lucky I had a pro get me started after a year or two trying to work it out myself. Third tip is making sure you have the correct tip size. 06mm,07mm or 08mm work best for acrylics. Then practice.

Painting is only the last part of a very log preparation stage. Paint will show off any blemish. Therefore you need to sand off the old finish. Or use paint stripper. Then you need to sand off all the scratch marks. Start with 220 then 800. You wont see a difference if you use 800 or 1500 on wood.

Then I use etch primer. Some say it’s not necessary and etch primer was only designed for aluminum. However I get GREAT results starting with this step. somehow plain old primer lays down patchy. Then a coat of builder primer. Then flat that off with 800. Then the top coat (color) and if nessesary a light colour sand with 1000 if there is any orange peel. It’s a hassle but the results are stunning. Then clear. And allot of it. 6 to 8 coats is average. Acrylycs need clear to really pop. And you need to sand and polish the clear for it to really pop, that’s why you need at least 6 coats.

onto No 6

before
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Prep work for No 6 was a mammoth task! Some surprises happened too. I started sanding off the top layer of the leg and the wood below was an off pink colour!?!? Very weird. Then I was able to sand off the wood texture!?!? Wot the?!?!?! I had a look on the top and discovered the center of the leg is a hard wood then they inject plastic in a mold around it to make the carving. I’ve never seen that before. I felt a bit ripped off right then. I thought I had a carved leg but it was a moulded leg. Oh well lucky I got it for $70 and no one will know the difference with a coat of paint. Meh… I don’t think the guy who sold it to me even knew. anyway since I sanded off some of the wood texture I had to keep going.

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For the carved bits I decided to use stripper. It took 2 goes and a fairly big scrubbing brush. The paint that didn’t flake off really stuck to the plastic. And all the nooks and cranny's were a beeeaich to get paint out of.

Anyway that took a long time, over 2 weekends of and on but now it looks like this.
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Not a great shot and only part finished


There were some pretty big chips. I fixed those with 2 part putty and I put a few nails in to hold the putty. Just mold it till it fits. I used a straw for the curves and you cant tell now anything was fixed.

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Onto the paint described above. I have a thing for black and gold. The bandit’s car in Smokey and the Bandit left a lasting impression on me. Lighter colours show off detail so the carving had to be gold. And I highlight here and there and the rest is black. Ive learnt that the more colours you use the worse things look. Cars rarely have more than 3 colours. 2 of them are almost always the same. Black and silver, then only one other colour. Ever noticed that?

So the message here is less is more when it comes to colours. AND highlight colours are easy to overdo. They then look just awful. Again if you do this you can lightly sand and redo it.

It took about 2 hours just to mask off the black on one leg before i could paint - that’s another critical preparation task. But the more time you spend here the better. Spray paint can find ways into any crevice not taped up well. And don’t use masking tape. The thinners in the paint turn masking tape to mush. There are about 30 to 40 cut up little bits of tape there. The trick to making it work is knowing when to remove the tape. And there is a trechnique to how u remove it to get the best results. Remove it too early and it drips, leave it too late and it chips the paint when you remove the tape. That took me a few years to find the sweet spot. And it changes depending on how much thinner you used, the temperature and even brands of paint have different curing properties. So there isn’t a hard a fast time but if you practice you get the hang of it. But its when the paint Just gets dry to the touch. anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour after the last coat. And if you stuff it up just give it light sand and do it again. Acryllics don’t care how many coats you use. On this project there will be about 15 coats. Etch primer, primer builder, sand maybe a second coat and sand, black , gold, clear and lots of coats. And that is not excessive. And if you do them right laying paint will only be about 5 to 10% of your time. The rest is preparation for the paint. This is also true for the pros. Maybe more so because they can lay paint down much faster.

here are the legs one in etch primer one just stripped

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here it is after the black masked up for the gold

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Anyway here is a teaser of the result. I am really pleased. Finding a great shade of gold has taken a long time. I really like this one.

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I’ll keep posting as I do bits and pieces. Some of the bits haven’t been started yet.

Questions welcome.
 
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Wow! That is so awesome Geoff, well done mate. Will follow your progress. :)
 
Thanks adam :)
Hey by the way when are ya comming down Here?

is it still on?
So want to get down this half of the year, but looks more like second half. Will keep you in the loop when I know more
 
I had a setback. I used a new type of clear coat lacquer I haven’t used before and it made the gold change colour and run. It went a horrible shade of orange.

20190310_123414.jpg



Ugh…


So its lucky its acrylic paint because acrylic doesn’t care how many coats you lay down. so I had to redo the black then 2 coats of lacquer over the black and it really made it POP!

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Then the hour and a half masking off then the gold and we are now back where we started.

Lacquer also likes a light sand with 2000 grit then a polish and it looks like this. Mirror Finish! its much easier to use than plain old clear coat. Don’t worry about the dents they will be covered by the leg.

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I also mucked around with the feet a bit. I tried just the gold over black and it was dull. Since the feet are going to be in shadow I think it needed to pop a bit more so I tried a white background and it stands out a little more. I used an eyedropper thingy to just drop the paint in the hole. It worked ok. Ill polish off the smudges later.

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So I’m past half way for the legs but there is still a fair way to go.

Yay

Hopefully there aren’t any more set backs.

Till the next installment.
 
This is some masterful stuff. I'm in awe!

Thank you very much Venturalvn.

I just love doing this stuff. i built my first table about 16 years ago and that one was pretty bad. this is number 5 and 6. however table 4 has been pretty much rebuilt at least twice.

as far as paint is concerned its another one of those obsessions. again i love it.

thanks again, im very humbled by your compliment.
 

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