Paint/finish for wooden work surface

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frizz
 
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Paint/finish for wooden work surface

Post by frizz »

OK, I'm getting ready to build my bench, and I don't know if I wa/nt to spend the extra money to have a smooth hardwood top. If I choose to put something on top, what should I use to avoid ESD

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Franklin97355
 
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Re: Paint/finish for wooden work surface

Post by Franklin97355 »

I'd go with Masonite or Melamine surface and an ESD mat. There are benchtops that are ESD safe but they cost a bit.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Paint/finish for wooden work surface

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Woodworking runs in my family, so I've built or helped build several workbenches over the years.

For a work surface, you want an oil finish. Film finishes (paint, varnish, and lacquer) sit on top of the wood, so the abuse a workbench inevitably receives will chip them and cause them to flake. Oils seep into the wood then polymerize as they pick up oxygen from the air. The protective layer is thicker and has a better bond to the wood, and you can touch it up just by wiping a bit more oil on any places that get scratched or scuffed.

Tung oil is the finish of choice, but it tends to be pricey and takes about a week to cure. Don't waste money on the 'fast-drying' tung oil blends.. they don't produce as good a finish and contain heavy-metal drying agents. Get the good stuff and be patient, or get something else.

'Danish oil' is a good first layer. It's a combination of oil, solvent, and a bit of varnish solids. It soaks in well, dries overnight, and the solids help the oil fill the pores of the wood better. I generally wipe on a couple coats of Danish oil at half hour intervals (enough to evaporate some of the solvent, but not long enough to cure the oil), then rub in some boiled linseed oil half an hour after that. The linseed oil is thicker, and builds a better surface layer. Next day, I wipe on a coat of carnauba floor wax, let that sit for about an hour, then polish the surface with a rag.

The end result looks good, is durable, and is easy to touch up when it starts showing wear.

light99path
 
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Re: Paint/finish for wooden work surface

Post by light99path »

That was REALLY helpful Mike. I've been trying to figure out the best way to finish a dobsonian telescope I have built, and this is precisely the explanation I was looking for. Thanks!

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Paint/finish for wooden work surface

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Lightpath wrote:a dobsonian telescope I have built
Awesome! Post pictures if you have them.

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frizz
 
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Re: Paint/finish for wooden work surface

Post by frizz »

Tung oil. Hmm. I love that stuff. I don't know if I will have the patience to let it properly dry, though.

Trivia: In WWII, stands of tung trees were fenced with warning signs because it was a critical war material. M1 rifles had walnut stocks which were dipped in vats of the oil so that the wood wouldn't warp when exposed to the elements and banged around by GIs.

To Lightpath:
It should be great for a Dob because it will keep the wood stable during humidity changes. 8)

light99path
 
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Re: Paint/finish for wooden work surface

Post by light99path »

Truthfully all I built was the mount. I bought the tube second hand, it's an Orion 10" reflector. I'll see if I can't find a pic.

Long term goal is to use either a RPi or a Beagle Bone with optical encoders for pointing, but that's probably going to be on v2.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Paint/finish for wooden work surface

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

There's been a debate about how much "I did this part" versus "I bought this part" constitutes legitimate DIY since before the Maker movement settled on that name.

There are hard-liners who insist you have to chip your bits out of flint in the basement of a house you built yourself using tools made from iron you dug with your bare hands and smelted yourself. There are others who insist taking a device out of the box, plugging it in, and running code someone else wrote and tested is as DIY as anyone needs to get.

The general consensus of opinion sits somewhere between the extremes. If you built the base and bought the tube, we'll ooh-aah over the base with specific intent to stroke your ego, and ooh-aah over the tube in proportion to our own astronomy-geekness. ;-)

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frizz
 
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Re: Paint/finish for wooden work surface

Post by frizz »

Building a mount is nothing to sneeze at.

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