Mixing and Matching Wood Stains

I've bought my fair share of cans of stain over the years. They were typically little cans with approximations of the stain color on the lids and obscure names like "American Oak". My routine was to buy a can, try to mix the pigment and the solvent together in this little can without it spilling all over my workbench, and then apply it to a sample piece of wood. More often than not, the color was disappointing. What a waste of time and money.



Pigments and Dyes Make Stains

Stains use pigments and/or dyes to produce different effects. In general, pigments will enhance the wood grain and dyes will display the figure in the wood. Used together, your stain application can be one of the highlights of your project.

Pigments are the basis for paints but when they are deluded in a solvent, they will fall into the grain that is characteristic in wood species like oak or ash. The pigment particles are too large to be absorbed into the wood so when you wipe the excess stain off across the grain, a small amount of pigment remains in the grain pores. Most people are disappointed when using pigment stains on maple or birch. The pigment particles are too large to be absorbed into the wood and since these species have minimal grain, little color remains after wiping off the excess stain.

Dyes have smaller particles than pigments and they dissolved into a solvent, so no stirring is required..  The solvents can be water, shellac or mineral oil and their purpose is to carry the dye to the wood and they . Dyes are absorbed into the top layer of the wood and work well with changing the color of most wood species.







Mixing and Matching Wood Stains

So pigment stains will emphasize the wood grain and dyes stains will change the wood color. When do you use pigments or dyes, or both? I typically will always use dye to color the wood, and on occasion, use pigments to emphasize the grain. In my Mission Style post, I first applied a dark pigment to highlight the grain, then followed with a reddish-brown colored dye to color the wood. For my table, I wanted to color the pale cherry veneer to the red color expected from cherry. Applying a red dye allowed me to accelerate the decades required to obtain the natural redness of cherry.

Applying a Pigment

To control my results, I typically use Minwax Gel Stains when applying pigments. In this case, gel is the solvent and the pigment is suspended in the gel. I prefer gel because it provides consistency between applications. And the gel reduces the uneven absorption of stain which causes blotching. Cherry and pine are especially prone to blotching.

If you are pleased with the final results of a gel stain, you can skip the dye application step and go straight to applying a finish. In my case, In my case, I want the gel to fill the grain with a dark or medium brown color. I don't always like the dye color results, so I wait for the gel to dry, and then sand off the wood surface using a 150 grit sandpaper with my orbital sander. I want to leave the pigment in the grain, to I only sand the surface to obtain its original color.

Applying a Dye

So now the wood grain is emphasized, but the wood surface is still the color of the raw wood.

Mounting Cabinet Doors With Amerock Hinges

Mounting doors can be a frustrating activity. The gaps around the doors need to be uniformly narrow and the door needs to fit flush to the cabinet frame. European hinges provide all sorts of adjustments, but the door mounts over a frameless cabinet instead of inside a face frame. Furniture-like cabinets use inset doors inside a face frame. Installing these doors require more demanding tolerances and skill to mount, but they look more professional than a door laying over a frameless cabinet.

Although many commercial cabinets are frameless and use 35mm European hinges, I think these lack woodworker craftsmanship. For door hinges on face framed cabinets, I like to use the Amerock full wrap, full inset hinges. To make things a little more challenging, hinges can either support a face frame attached flush to the inside wall of the cabinet, or a frame that is proud of the cabinet side. I prefer the frame to be flush with the cabinet side which allows items to be removed from the cabinet without scraping your knuckles on the frame.

This hinge has been designed for ¾" wide doors, but doors can be accommodated ± ¹/₁₆" by adjusting the mounting the hinge on the frame. Unfortunately there is no slot for adjusting the door in or out of the frame. You just need to drill the mounting holes exactly.

The slots on the frame wing allow the door to be adjusted ³/₁₆" vertically. The hinge's door wing slots allow the door to be adjusted horizontally, however I typically use the door edge screw and door side screw to attach the door, otherwise the door can rock in the hinge. Using the horizontal door adjustment moves the door away from the bracket with the edge screw making these slots useless.

Attaching the Hinge: Frame or Door First?

I like to attach the hinge to the cabinet frame first. The challenge is where to drill the mounting holes in the frame. The goal is to have the surface of the door be flush to the edge of the frame. Since there is no slot in the Amerock hinge that allows adjusting door slightly into or out of the frame, exact mounting of the hinge is required.

This diagram shows what hole distance that must be determined. If the door is exactly ¾" thick, the hinge screws should be ⅜" from the corner of the frame. Since door thickness will vary, I verify the hole distance using a jig to try the hinge with a piece of scrap wood that is the same thickness as my door.

I use a wheeled marking gauge that scribes a fine line ⅜" from the edge of the scrap piece. The orange circle shows the cut. I attach the hinge to the wood.

Setting a piece of scrap into the hinge representing the door, I verify how flush the door is with the frame. If adjustments are needed, I adjust the cutting wheel on the gauge slightly in or out for another test. I remount the hinge using the new gauge setting, and keep trying again until I've determined that critical distance.

When the door is flush, the gauge is at the required distance for the hinge mounting. If I need the gauge for something else, I can replicate the distance by inserting the gauge wheel into the scribed line and adjusting the gauge so the brass shoe is flush to side of the jig.

Mounting the Hinge on the Frame

I usually mount a hinge a couple of inches from the top and bottom of the frame. The door size will define what "looks" right for hinge placement.

The Amerock hinge is 2 ½" tall and the holes on the Amerock hinges are 1 ¹¹/₁₆" apart.

Accurately Mounting the Hinges on the Frame

Using the gauge to mark the set back distance for the mounting holes, and marking the distance between the holes, I'm ready to drill holes into the frame. I use a marking knife to scribe the vertical position of the hinge screw locations. An X-Acto knife will work as well. Lightly drag a center punch across the intersecting scribes to locate the cross and tap the punch to mark the center of the cross to guide the drill. Drill the mounting holes and attach the hinge to the frame.




Mounting the Hinge to the Door

The door should be correctly cut for the frame. Slight cut adjustments to the door may be required (usually in my case) for a uniform gap to show between the door and the frame. After these cuts have been made, the hinge can be mounted.

With the hinge mounted on the frame, measure the distance from the top of the frame to the top of the hinge's door edge hole.  The hinges allow for a small vertical correction (³/₁₆") in door position to allow a symmetrical gap to show above and below the door.

Applying Adhesive Veneer Edging

Using adhesive veneer edging can be an easy repair or essential part of project. Although purists may frown on edging, I find that it can be used imperceptibly to most people. Most veneer edging is thick enough to resist physical abuse. And it is real wood, so stains apply easily.

Applying Adhesive Edging

Adhesive veneer is typically about 1/16" thick and backed with a heat sensitive adhesive backing. Many of the usual hardwoods are sold: cherry, oak, birch, walnut, and mahogany and widths range from ¾" to wider. An iron melts the adhesive backing to adhere the edging. I like to use this small and economical iron. Just using scissors, cut a length of veneer slightly longer than the edge being covered.

Trimming Adhesive Edging

In my experience, trimming the edging can be a challenge. Depending on grain direction, tear out can occur when cutting it. I've used a router bit with a bearing for cutting flush trim cuts and still have had problems. Through trial and error I've come up with the following techniques.

On the ends, I just align a chisel against the work piece and cut the overhanging edging off.

 
When trimming the sides, the grain direction can be frustrating. For reliable results, I use the blade from my plane to cut the sides of the edging. I rest part of the blade on the side of work piece and cut the overhanging veneer at an angle. I rotate the blade clockwise and cut off a small length, then move the blade to the left and repeat the process. This scissor-like action seems to handle difficult grain direction. I usually start from the middle and work towards the end of the veneer.

After trimming the overhang, I usually run the iron at a slight angle to seal the edges to the work piece again. Then I lightly sand the edge of the veneer for a slight round over. After applying finish to the piece, its difficult to know that veneer was used.

Veneer Gaps After Dyeing

Occasionally after applying a water-base dye, the veneer may separate from the substrate. Look for this before a finish or lacquer is applied. Just use the iron to reattach the veneer. Heating a finish will destroy it, so reattach the veneer before applying the finish.

 

Holding Cabinet Doors Closed Magnetically

Holding doors closed using magnets is easy compared to mechanical latching systems or special hinges. Simply, the door is held close using a small rare-earth magnet embedded in the frame. Another magnet or metal dowel is embedded in the door. When the door is closed, magnetic attraction keeps the door closed. A gentle pull on the door will break the attraction and allow the door to open freely.

Sounds easy, but what are the details? I find that a ¼" diameter magnetic is sufficient and I simply drill a ¼" hole and insert the magnet. To ensure the face of the door is flush to the frame, the magnets should be positioned the same distance from the front of the cabinet. To hide the magic of the magnet, I apply veneer hot-melt edging over the magnet.

For this door I embedded a short metal dowel in the door. It is located just under the handle on the edge of the door and covered by veneer. The video shows the closing of the door. The narrow gaps between the door and the frame cause an air cushion that slows the closing of the door. When the metal dowel gets within the proximity of the magnet, the door is pulled close.

Finishing the Semi-Circle Table

After finishing the top, I wanted to carry the same design elements into the apron and legs. For the apron, I added a strip painted birch. I've been pleased with using Valspar in the past and the quantity of paint provided in a  sample size is more than enough for a small furniture project. I wanted to see whether I could spray it with my touch-up gun without diluting it with water and I successfully applied with using a 1.5mm nozzle.








Below the painted birch is another semi-circle of cherry which is was shaped with a bead profile. To conserve cherry, I glued a thin strip of it to plywood from a reclaimed cupboard door. Using 10 wedges, I calculated that my narrow ½" cherry scrap piece would be sufficient width to accommodate the curve and show the profile.

Similar to my previous table project, I've used reclaimed oak flooring to make the legs. After removing any nails from the wood, I glue several pieces together and use my router to cut the bead profile in the sides. I've sprayed a light brown dye stain on them, followed with shellac as a barrier coat. Finally, several coats of Polycrylic water-based finish was applied.

In order to use as much reclaimed wood as possible, I only have a thin strip of cherry on the profiled edge. Notice that the figured cherry veneer overlaps this and extends to the edge of the table.






Here is a close up picture of the ash center, cherry edging, and the oak legs.

Semi-Circle Table Using Reclaimed Wood

I've started a new table project using reclaimed materials. I've glued maple veneer to a ¾" plywood cupboard door. It's flat, cabinet-grade wood with many layers of ply, and they sold it for $1. My plan is to create a border of cherry similar to my previous night stand project. The top will be a semi-circle and my plan is to show a band of poplar painted green around the side.







In my night stand, I used biscuits to align the edge of cherry to the top. The smaller radius in this project prevents the biscuit cutter from making a deep enough cut into the cherry. Instead of that approach, I've cut a 3/16" slot into both pieces. The roller bearing on the router bit allows me to follow the curved shape. This slot allows me to insert short splines to align the top and glue the pieces together.. To curve the spline inserts, I use the router circle jig to curve the spline inserts.


Before I glue the cherry piece on, I've applied a Minwax Honey Maple Gel Stain to accentuate the grain in the ash. I do this before gluing the edge to avoid getting the stain on the cherry. I'm waiting 8 hours for it to dry before proceeding.





Surrounding the semicircle is a border using figured cherry veneer. I plan on routing a bead profile along the edge of the table so I have glued a strip of cherry to plywood and then applied the veneer over this.

Before gluing the border of cherry, I use the inside curve of the piece as a template to cut the blue masking tape. I will use this with some parchment paper to cover the ash while I stain the cherry. Using a water based dye, I spray the border red. After it dries, I use the tape to mask the border and spray the ash using an amber colored dye.

To protect the table top from the water base finish, I sprayed the top with a fine film of shellac. Finally, I sprayed a couple coats of Polycrylic.

Next, on to the apron and legs.

Final View - Table Made From 99.9% Recycled Materials

I finished my hallway table using reclaimed oak flooring for the legs and an old cabinet door for the top. To show the flake pattern that is characteristic of quarter-sawn wood, I glued three flooring strips together and routed beads on one side. The beads hide the glue joints. On the top and bottom of the glued stack, I applied a quarter-sawn white oak veneer. This veneer and some dowel pins are the only non-recycled part of the project. The pins were used to secure the rail tenons in the mortise on the legs.

The top was painted with black acrylic paint with a satin finish. The rails have rabbet cuts which holds the top. I sprayed the whole piece with three coats of satin Polycrylic, a water-based finish. The top now seems to absorb light; there is no reflection whatsoever.

Progress on my Hallway Table using Reclaimed Wood

Just an update on my Bold Doors entry. I've assembled and glued the legs to the aprons rails using mortise and tenon joints. On a previous post, I discussed how applying gel stain which highlights the grain. Using 150 grit sandpaper, I removed the stain from the wood surface and then sprayed with a light brown water-base TransTint dye. I use my small touch-up gun with a 0.8mm nozzle. This is my favorite spray gun because its so easy to clean.

The rails have a ¼" rabbet cut to hold the tabletop made from a reclaimed cupboard door. Using a door is a requirement of the competition. I want this wood insert to be colored black so I paint it first before I install it in the oak rail frame. There was one hole and some dents that needed to be filled. After sanding it enough to remove some of the polyurethane finish, I filled the recessed areas with drywall joint compound (Even Jeff Jewitt, wood finishing author, says he does this). Drywall compound creates a very smooth surface and its easy to sand. To create a good bonding surface for the acrylic black paint, I sprayed the surface with Zinsser BIN Primer. This is a shellac-based primer that bonds to anything. This will be the magnet that holds the acrylic paint to the door's existing polyurethane finish.

I've painted this piece black with a small amount of Valspar acrylic paint. This sample quantity from Lowes is all I need, so this was cost effective. Everything I've read says it is difficult (or not recommended) to spray acrylic from a HVLP gun using a small compressor. I've sprayed acrylic successfully using my full size 20oz capacity gravity gun with a 2.0mm nozzle, but it takes longer to clean the gun than my touch-up gun.  As an experiment, I tried the touch-up gun using a 1.5mm nozzle. As Jeff recommends, I've diluted the Valspar with 10% water.
It works! I wouldn't want to spray a whole room like this, but the touch-up gun is working fine for a small piece.

Next: install the black tabletop and apply a water-based finish.

Creating My Table With Reclaimed Flooring

I officially entered the Bold Doors competition. This competition is all about artistic expression using reclaimed materials. The requirement is that the entry must incorporate a reclaimed door. Some of the examples on their site show doors decorated in various ways, but since the entries will be displayed at local business, their guidance is to think small. My thought is to build a hallway table using reclaimed oak floors for the legs and a door for the top. My goal is for it to be 99% reclaimed wood.

Here are my materials, about 12 square feet of oak flooring and a cupboard door made from ¾" plywood. I carefully remove the nails and staples from the flooring pieces and rip the pieces thick enough to allow two ¼" diameter beads to be cut along the edge. Three boards glued together will provide space for six beads and any seam from gluing the pieces will be hidden between rows of beads.

I plan to use my Mission Style stain technique which will highlight interesting grain patterns in the oak. The plain sawn flooring has long grain patterns that aren't attractive - at least to me. Looking at the side of the wood flooring, the end grain pattern has short flake and ray patterns that are the hallmark of Arts & Crafts furniture. I've glued a piece of quarter-sawn piece veneer to what was the surface of the floor in order to cover the boring long grain.

Here I show a table leg with beads cut on a router table. I start applying the stain finish before construction because its easier to sand. The first step is to use a Mahogany Gel Stain. I wipe the stain off across the grain in order to leave the pigment in the grain. After 24 hours, I use a 150 grit sandpaper and sand off most of the color leaving the pigment in the grain. It will look much better after spraying with a dye stain. Next step, cutting mortise and tenon joints for constructing the table.

Creating Fine Furniture with Reclaimed Materials

I'm planning on entering a juried competition which requires using a reclaimed door to create a piece of art. Doors are apparently frequently discarded and many of them end in landfills. I'm considering constructing a hallway table using a portion of a solid-core front door for the table top and milling reclaimed oak flooring into trim apron rails and legs. My goal is to use 99% reclaimed materials (by weight) for this entry and I will be documenting my progress on this blog. Entrees aren't due until June so I think I have enough time.

Here is photo of reclaimed flooring that is left outside to the elements. Bundles are less than 10 square feet and priced at $1 per square foot. Apprehensively, I purchased a bundle of solid oak flooring and took it home.

Since I like to use veneer, beaded features, and mission style finish, I milled and finished a sample piece from the flooring I purchased. Shown on the far right, even after the beads were cut, the long grain patterns of the oak show due to its flat-grain. Preferring the shorter ray patterns from quarter-sawn wood, I've stacked and glued three pieces of flooring together (near right). This exposes the end grain, which is essentially what quarter-sawn wood shows. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the left piece is better.

Having figured out how to use the reclaimed flooring for the apron rails, the legs are next.

Mission Style End Table with Marble, Finished

I just completed the end table and change the embedded stone from slate to marble. The slate was too bumpy and heavy for a table top and it even showed minor scratches. Marble isn't my favorite but I can get attractive 12" x 18" tiles for $8. The top is constructed from quarter-sawn white oak veneered on red oak. Red oak is readily available from my local Lowes store. After staining, you can't tell the difference in the species of oak.

Here is a view from the top showing the final construction of the curved sides. I was worried that they might flex easily but that has not been the case. It's easy to miss that they are curved. I think this is a design issue because there isn't anything straight to highlight the curve. Perhaps it would have helped if the sides were flush to the curved top.

Finishing only took two days. The first day to apply gel stain to emphasize the grain. The following day I lightly sanded the oak leaving the stain in the grain, and then sprayed it with a brown water-based dye. After it dried, I used a spray can of Deft satin lacquer to finish the project.

Mission Style End Table with Slate, Part 3

Here is an update on the end table project. The complex part are the curved sides which bow out slightly from each side to match the curve of the top. The picture at right shows the bottom of the table with a coat of gel stain that fills the grain of the oak. I'm following my Mission Style finish recipe that I blogged about earlier. After the stain dries, I'll sand it and then spray a brown dye.

Economy and Reduced Complexity

Using solid quarter-sawn white oak would have been costly and showing flake on all four sides of the legs would have been difficult. This project almost entirely uses veneer. The core of the legs is ¾" plywood with ¼" MDF sandwiched between them. Quarter-sawn white oak veneer is glued to all four sides.

Enabling the Curved Sides

To create the bowed sides, I've cut a 15° slot into the sides of the legs. I don't want the curve all the way to the floor, so the challenge is only having the slot partially down the leg. Veneer allows me to cover the slot on bottom part of the leg. I sawed the slot the entire length of the leg, then filled the slot with filler where it wasn't required. Veneer was glued over the top and I exposed the slot again with a small diameter router bit on my router table.

Mission Style End Table with Slate, Part 2

Here is the table top with the slate installed. I sprayed it with Deft Clear Wood Finish, a lacquer finish with a satin sheen. Both the wood and the slate were sprayed. The lacquer added more amber color to the top making it a bit darker than I wanted. I'm starting to have reservations about using slate. The finish highlights any scratches and the surface is too bumpy. I plan to attach the top with screws so I can change it later if I get motivated.

I want to have an enclosed shelf underneath the top to store books and other stuff. To make it challenging, I'm trying to have curved sides to match the curve in the top. I've never tried bending wood before because it looked pretty involved. I wanted to see whether I could just veneer quarter-sawn oak to ⅛" MDF and bend it to the curve I needed.
To experiment, I've cut 15° angle slots into what would be the table legs. I've screwed a board to the legs and wedged a narrow board under the MDF at the peak of the curve. I was worried that the curved veneer would flex when pushed, but it's very stiff. This may work!

Mission Style End Table with Slate, Part 1

I've wanted to integrate slate with wood and thought I'd share my progress on an end table that I've just started. I had a piece of plain sawn oak that I want to make more interesting. I glued quarter-sawn white oak veneer to it to make the top more interesting. I plan to apply the Mission Style finish that I described in an earlier posting.

Here is what it looks like after applying Mahogany gel stain. Notice that the grain pattern is now more visible because the pigment gets lodged into the pores. I'm going to let it dry over night and then sand off any stain on the wood surface while leaving the stain in the grain to accentuate the pattern.

After I sanded the stain with 220 grit, I sprayed on a brown water-based dye. To protect the dye from subsequent operations, I then sprayed with Bulls Eye Shellac. Now I'm ready to glue the plywood bottom for the slate and then insert the tile into the tabletop.