White oak tearout

[gsmittle]

I have a quartersawn white oak table top I'm making. I have a little tearout in places from the planer. Unfortunately it's too deep to sand out. What's the best (easiest) way to fill it? Or should I just put a candlestick or something on the spot?????

g.

[ironhat]

You will have to be the judge but you can try a damp rag o the spot and then a hot iron to try to lift the grain. I've had variable results - sometimes surprisingly good - it's worth a try.

Chiz

[John Hunter]

I just used a pour on finish that is self leveling. It fills such tearout completely you might want to check it out here is a link that shows it although i used a different brand I bought at Lowes. http://www.eti-usa.com/consum/envtex/envlite.htm

[DeanKC]

I have questions for answering your question.

1. Are the torn out places of sufficient size and number that you're going to notice the fixes?
2. Is the problem localized?
3. If localized, can you use it as a "design opportunity" to inlay something else attractive?
4. If it's all near an edge, can you add a piece of contrasting wood in place of that edge?
5. Are the places deep enough to allow you to inlay either sawdust & glue patches or maybe stone or some other fun stuff?? I'm thinking turquoise or malachite; several of these natural stones are available for smashing at Hobby Lobby or Michael's.

The whole point of my line of questioning is that if it's not awful but awful enough to need fixing, you may be able to get away with some fine sawdust and some glue. If not, put in something contrasting. If it won't hide, highlight it!

And yeah, you could indeed do the poured finish approach.

[JimD]

When I do not take the time to sand these sort of imperfections out, they draw my eye every time I look at the piece. With an 80 grit or even a 100 grit belt in the belt sander, I bet I could take them out in a few minutes. It will make the top a bit thinner and depending on the design of the table, that could be even more noticable. If you won't notice the thickness change, I would remove them. I think you will kick yourself if you don't.

I find sawdust and glue to be very noticable. When I fill a small imperfection, I like to use the same finish I will apply and some sawdust. It is darker than the wood but less noticable to me than sawdust and glue.

Jim

[gsmittle]

I have questions for answering your question.

1. Are the torn out places of sufficient size and number that you're going to notice the fixes?
2. Is the problem localized?
3. If localized, can you use it as a "design opportunity" to inlay something else attractive?
4. If it's all near an edge, can you add a piece of contrasting wood in place of that edge?
5. Are the places deep enough to allow you to inlay either sawdust & glue patches or maybe stone or some other fun stuff?? I'm thinking turquoise or malachite; several of these natural stones are available for smashing at Hobby Lobby or Michael's.

The whole point of my line of questioning is that if it's not awful but awful enough to need fixing, you may be able to get away with some fine sawdust and some glue. If not, put in something contrasting. If it won't hide, highlight it!

And yeah, you could indeed do the poured finish approach.

1. Probably.
2. Pretty localized; two spots where I went the wrong direction with a hand plane.
3. I've never done inlay before, and since this is a gift from SWMBO to my PIL, this is not the project to learn on.
4. Unfortunately, both spots are near the seam where I joined two boards for the table top.
5. They're pretty deep.

Thanks for all the help!

g.

[LarryG]

This is from the Dept. of The Painfully Obvious, but since no one has asked ...

Is there any possibility of turning the top upside-down, so that the flaws will be on the bottom side that no one will see?

[Popeye]

I had the same problem with an end table last spring. I use clear 5 minute epoxy to fill voids like that. I also use it to fill in knots. Sands clear and seems to take all finishes well. After 9 months or so I now have to really look hard to find the fixes. Pat

[Wood_workur]

have you tried feeding the board in the opposite direction?

[gsmittle]

Thanks to all for your suggestions. I tried the sawdust and glue fix, but it was so ugly I took it out.

Alex, when I used the thickness planer I fed the board in correctly. Then I tried to clean up a small mismatch between the two glued boards of the tabletop with a hand planer. Of course I went in the wrong direction that time.

Larry, I joined the boards together with pocket holes, so flipping the top over is out of the question. Sometimes I outsmart myself.

I'll try mixing some dust with shellac and see if that helps. If that doesn't help, Pat, I'll try the epoxy and see what happens.

What I've learned so far: 1) it's never as easy as I think it will be, 2) learn to tune/use a hand plane!

This thing gets given to my in-laws on Saturday. What I need is Nahm's TimeSaver....

g.

[DeanKC]

One last question: Is veneer a possibility?? Could you just veneer the whole top??

[gsmittle]

This is from the Dept. of The Painfully Obvious, but since no one has asked ...

Is the Dept. of the Painfully Obvious next door to the Department of Redundancy Department?

Dean, veneer is out of the question. LOML wants a solid wood top, so solid wood it will be. I'm not really set up to do a veneer that large (20x69) anyway.

The sanding dust in shellac worked until I added another coat of shellac. Then the dust got displaced....

The good news is that the shellac is starting to fill in the divots, and when I poly on top of that the tearout might not be so noticable. I hope.

We give it to the in-laws on Saturday. I'll be glad to get the cursed thing out of my shop...

g.

[SARGE..g-47]

Morning gs..

I can't see them but are the tear-outs too deep to pull out with a card scraper or a cabinet scraper plane? If not too deep, that is the weapon I'm reaching for in my bag of tricks first!

Good luck..

[Wood_workur]

do you have a belt sander? you could belt sand it down enough to remove the tearout, if it is shallow enough

and if you hadn't glued it up yet, I would have suggestted 1/64" or less cuts with the bord damphened with water just before planing. works every time.

[kenshep]

Dutchmen

Hi,
Since you are near a seam is a dutchman possible? Or two. You could use white oak or overtly use a dark wood to highlight the little bow tie shaped patch. A router jig with a collar can be used to rout out the rough part and also to create the dutchman. You may want to do more to create a sense of symmetry.