Post #463105 by Aaron's Akua on Fri, Jun 19, 2009 6:06 PM

Why, thank you leleliz!

You know, back in the day (and by back in the day I mean about two years ago, which is like a decade in Tiki Central time), it seems like everyone was doing step-by-step posts showing how they went about doing their projects. So, in an attempt to revive that tradition, I'm going to do one here. Why not? Hope no one minds... :D

Okay, so where was I?

The sign was pretty much all sanded up with the orbital and drum sanders, ready to go.

But these "jaggies" were bugging me. This is a pretty cheap piece of pine board, and my little V chisel is dull as all get out. Here's a bad spot where I had to cut cross-grain.

Also, my Tormek is till in the box. Duh! Gotta find time to set this thing up & watch the DVD to figure out how to set up the chisel jigs.

So, short of actually sharpening my chisels, I had to break out the Porter Cable. I wasn't too impressed with this thing when I bought it a few years back, but it worked out pretty good for cleaning up the frame lines.

It has these rubber tips that you wrap stickky back sanding paper around like so...

Next, torching. Like any wise spouse, I picked up an old spatula from the thrift store rather than face the wrath of my wife by destroying her kitchen utensils. Besides, it was a good excuse to scout for mugs. No luck...

I've never done this before, but it looked like a good way to avoid burning up my lettering & stuff.

Well, mostly...

What I was looking to do was get that raised grain look in the background parts. Another benefit is that after wire brushing, all of the little router marks were gone. Seriously, I'll do anything to avoid hand sanding. I HATE sanding!

Next, hit it with the orbital sander to get rid of the excess charring.

And voila!

At that point you'd think I'd hit it with some light stain and call it a day.

This is where you say "Dude! That's Ebony stain you're slathering all over it!!" Yes it is! There's a method to my madness!!

Like a big hershey bar...

Here it is after rubbing & clean up with rags..

That's the beginning of my staining process - more to come in the next installment, whenever that is.

Cheers!

A-A