Finishing Urethane carvings

If you want to include carvings in your work urethane and plaster castings are an easy way to go. Most people don't know how to make them look like wood though. Here are a couple of "Step strips" that show the process. A step strip is something a finisher makes as a sample so the finish can be duplicated by someone else later. Click on the picture for a larger view.

The first step on the right is white primer. Next a base color of lacquer (utc mixed in clear) the base color should be a little lighter than the lightest color of the wood color you are matching. Step 3 is a gilsonite glaze. Sherwin Williams S64 gilsonite mixed with mineral spirits. I used a chip brush (cheap disposable brush) to make sure I got color in all the nooks and crannies and then a thin sealer coat to seal the glaze for the next layer. Step 4 is another glaze. This one is artists oil colors. VanDyke brown mixed with a little black thinned with a little mineral spirits to make it brushable. You brush on a full coat and wipe the color back off the high spots with a rag. Let it dry 15 to 20 minutes and I sealed it in using Mohawk Ultra classic toner in an aersol can. You can also mix your own toner using ngr stain or transtints mixed in your lacquer. Here is another step strip over the airbrushed wood pecker.

Very similar steps on this, the base color is different though.

Both of these moldings were made by me using a urethane mold making system from the original carvings.

Here are a couple of jobs we did using urethane moldings. All of the carved features in these 2 sets of cabinets are urethane moldings.

Don't be a Sap

This is how to get rid of that pesky sap wood. Sometimes it can look nice but in this case it was asymmetrical.

This is a conference table we did awhile back that they wanted to use up some old veneer with sap wood. It was nicely figured veneer but no one wanted to see the sap wood. This client took a chance and got a nice discount. The first step was to mask off the solid wood and spray ngr stain on the sap wood with a cup gun. The fan is set as small as possible and the fluid is cut way back. Then you just color between the lines to even out the color. ( I used Mohawk ultra penetrating dye stain Cherry for this table)

After all of the sap wood is colored I applied my stain to the entire top. This helps to blend in the sap with the rest of the top. This top got a black painted inlay line as well.

This is the seal coat while it is still wet. The stain has been applied and the inlay line painted on. Notice the difference in color on the end solid. This isn't really a different color it is just how the dye stain changes color when viewed at different angles.

Here is a shot of the final finish. This is a 15 degree low sheen top coat of Milesi 2k urethane. The client was very happy, you could still see the wood figure but the sap didn't jump out at you.

I did a faux painted table base awhile back. I thought I would do a step by step on the process. I used a 2k urethane, the process would be very similar for other topcoats. 

 

Here is a picture of the base with just the white primer. I used a 2k urethane white primer for this one.

The first step was to mask off for the 4 way match faux veneer. I am matching an ebony veneer we used on a conference table.

The first step is to apply a fine texture using a flogging, scumbling or stipple effect with a gilsonite glaze. I use Sherwin Williams S64 stain base concentrate Gilsonite mixed with mineral spirits. After the glaze dries it is sealed with a thinned down isolante sealer so the next glaze step won't wipe it off.

The next step is to do a straight grain with a pencil liner brush. The glaze is artists oil colors mixed with mineral spirits. The grain color on this is Van Dyke brown and black. The thinner black lines were added with an airbrush. When it looks right the glaze is sealed and when the sealer is dry the masking is removed and the next area is masked off.

The process is repeated for each area of wood grain.

This is the end panel after both sections have been grained.

I wanted to add a faux raised panel on the sides so the first step was to faux  paint the rails and stiles.

I decided on a faux birds eye maple panel for my raised panel. The shading was all done with an airbrush.

This is really not that difficult. A great book for technique is "The Art of Faux" by Pierre Finkelstein

This is a quartersawn oak piece I did for the Ponderosa Ranch at Lake Tahoe. The carved panels were duplicated from the originals by making a urethane casting and then faux painting them as well. The panels on the left and right are flat. The shadows are created with the airbrush. Here are a couple more...

Everything is shipping tomorrow.

The conference table assembled for a client visit today.

 Finishing up blending in the raw mdf edges.

Sprayed  the final coats on the upper bookcases today. I should have all the doors done tomorrow for a Wednesday delivery.

These are the bases with the textured urethane sprayed on. After the first seal coat I scuff sanded with 320 grit and painted them black with 2k urethane sealer tinted black with 844 Degaussa UTC. As soon as the black flashed I sprayed a clear coat of sealer over the black so I don't get black dust when I sand. :P
After another 320 scuff sand I spray a full coat of flat 2k urethane topcoat and let it dry about 1/2 hour. The final step is to mix a small batch of semi-gloss 2k urethane and spray it out of my gravity feed SATA cup. The trick is to keep the atomizing air pressure as low as you can so you just get speckles. A little more or less air varies the size of the texture.

I got the doors for the bookcases today. The backs were relieved on the CNC to balance the laser carving on the front. I have to paint all of the carved out sections black. :P

I had the shop cut 2 templates for each size door out of mdf. I just spring clamped them to the back of the doors after lining them up.

Then a thin sealer tinted black sprayed into all the holes.

They actually came out really nice and it went much faster than I thought.

These are the four doors for one of the wide book cases. I always lay them out in order to stain them so there is no variation in color. I stain the face and edges first and then seal the faces only. Then I can flip them over, stain the back and make sure the edges are good with out worrying about getting stain on the front.

This is an upper cabinet for one of the wide bookcases.

I stain each interior opening first. I spray the water stain on wet and wipe dry with a rag. After blowing the corners dry I spray a shade coat of stain over the whole thing just to get everything evened out and make sure the color is right.

With water stain on interiors of cabinets it is VERY important to use an air nozzle and blow dry the corners. If I left this wet like this it would be darker where the water stain stays wet longer.

The carving on the front with stain and sealer.

The backs with stain.

All the bookcases stained and sealed. The blue tape is on because I pre-sealed the brackets so I could do a little faux graining on the raw mdf edges and I didn't want to build up the sealer more than on the casework. They just have base color on the edges now.

Bookcase doors all stained and sealed both sides.

I sprayed sealer on the mdf bases today. You can see how nice the edges come out with the glue size.

These are the parts to the conference table base. I got them all stained today, they will be ready for sealer and top coat tomorrow.

 These are the access panels for the conference table base.

Monday I started off by staining the bottom of the counter tops and sealing them well so they don't warp later. Nothing under here will show except a little of the solid edge.

They have been busy cutting the design into the door panels with the laser. Here are some of them ready for sanding

 

 These are the doors for the credenza.

C

 Cabinet boxes for the credenza. These are all built out of pre-finished ply. 

Here is a close up of the laser cut door design.

This is two pictures of the same sample panel from different angles. I took this to show the chatoyancy of the dye stain which is hard to see in a photo. Notice the difference in the color of the solid wood. In the photo on the left it looks much lighter on the right it matches perfectly. This is the way wood looks when finished naturally and I think it should look that way stained as well.

I always lay out any panels in their proper order before staining. This assures I don't get variations in the color. This is the conference table it is done exactly the same way as the counter tops so I won't go over the same info.

Conference table panel after sealing.

After the sealer dried the panels are flipped over and stained. I will seal and finish the underside of all the panels.

The bases of the conference table will have these supports which will be painted black and textured with urethane. On the raw mdf edges I am applying a glue size with a chip brush and a rag. The glue is just white carpenters glue mixed 1:1 with water, after the glue dries I hand sand with 220 grit sandpaper and seal everything.