Day 76: Buffing out the Naturals

Now that the naturals have had plenty of time to dry, I've started the process of buffing them out using Heavy Duty Scotch-Brite pads and #0000 steel wool. I'm using the pads because the initial removal of the Tru-Oil takes some work that results in a gooey, icky mess that develops into a dull finish that I then buff into a beautiful satin sheen.

I should have taken a photo of the intermediate, sticky part of the process, but it's pretty underwhelming. As you can see in the photo above, the one on the left is the dried Tru-Oil and the other is the final buffed out product. Owen was right, the Tru-Oil is perfect for the naturals.

In an unrelated matter, I was looking at the new jointer and noticed the fence was off by about one centimeter from left to right. I also noticed the previous owner had started to wire brush some of the rusted parts and probably decided it just wasn't worth the trouble. Hey, he listed it for $75 on Craigslist, right? So, I'll pick up where he left off and get them brushed up and repainted black. When I'm done with it, it will be shiny and new - just like Madonna.

It also needs new knives and the knife wheel could stand a good wire brushing. This mini-project suits me because I will need to use the jointer soon for the case parts and I can only sand four or five keys per night due to my Carpal Tunnel Syndrome surgery issue. My hands just hurt too much to sand more than that every night.

I also got the new Ridgid oscillating spindle sander and the lathe cleaned up and oiled where necessary. The next mini-project will be to either add a large outfeed/assembly table to the table saw or start adding mobile bases to the 12" Delta band saw, jointer and drill press, as well as adding stands to the Ridgid sander, the lathe and the 12" planer, all of which will also need mobile bases.

No rest for the wicked.

Until next time...