Greetings fellow sawdust makers,
If you live in the St Paul-Minneapolis area you may enjoy tomorrow's (Wednesday, August 20, 2014) meeting of the Minnesota Woodworker's Guild. Past meetings were free and open to the public, I assume this one is too, but if you're concerned you may want to send an email to the guild for verification.
Minnesota Woodworkers Guild Meeting
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tomsalwasser
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- Joined: Mon Feb 08, 2010 2:09 pm
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tomsalwasser
- Platinum Member
- Posts: 928
- Joined: Mon Feb 08, 2010 2:09 pm
Greetings fellow sawdust makers,
Great meeting last night. Tom Schrunk is an unassuming and humble guy but an extremely interesting and accomplished woodworker, inventor, artist and archaeologist. In this video you can get a feel for his work as an artist.
His main topic at the meeting was to discuss his simplified method for wood finishing. Guess what, he uses Min Wax oil based polyurethane and foam brushes (he prefers those sold at Walmart) for all his work, including works of art that travel the world. He says this gives his pieces protection, beauty and luster and allows his work to be repaired on site wherever in the world they happen to be because poly is everywhere and easily repairable.
He has invented a varnish storage system, which he says gives his varnish an unlimited shelf life. He demonstrated this and gave us all a free sample. You can go here for more information.
Despite the simplicity of his varnishing method, I hope to find his Fine Woodworking article from 2005 that lays it all out in print.
Great meeting last night. Tom Schrunk is an unassuming and humble guy but an extremely interesting and accomplished woodworker, inventor, artist and archaeologist. In this video you can get a feel for his work as an artist.
His main topic at the meeting was to discuss his simplified method for wood finishing. Guess what, he uses Min Wax oil based polyurethane and foam brushes (he prefers those sold at Walmart) for all his work, including works of art that travel the world. He says this gives his pieces protection, beauty and luster and allows his work to be repaired on site wherever in the world they happen to be because poly is everywhere and easily repairable.
He has invented a varnish storage system, which he says gives his varnish an unlimited shelf life. He demonstrated this and gave us all a free sample. You can go here for more information.
Despite the simplicity of his varnishing method, I hope to find his Fine Woodworking article from 2005 that lays it all out in print.
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"Wild Bad Bob"
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- Joined: Fri Mar 28, 2014 2:03 pm
- Location: Germantown, Wi
TomS,
thanks for the info!!! A note on foam "brushes", I just read an article in one of my WW magazines, and they showed pics of the 2 types of foam used. Which confirmed a bad experience I had!! Some use an open pored foam, you can see the "holes" in it between the foam, the other type is a denser foam, you cant see the holes. The open pored ones will slowly shed there foam in some finishes and leave it in the dried applied finish as "dust nubs". The other will not.
2 years ago I made a living room set of 2 end, coffee, gentleman's, and sofa tables, and a matching TV stand similar to the sofa table but a few different dimensions for the flat screen, from premium select red cherry and walnut. So I had a lot invested here for some custom furniture. I seen the difference in the foam brushes, but did not know one had this problem, all tables had 3 coats of oil based Poly, nothing but dust nubs between coats, more then I ever experience B4!!! Applied in a basement with no wood working going on, at the same time I was making a piece of outdoor furniture and used a bristle brush, oil based Spar Poly, applied in the garage, windows and overhead door open, no dust nubs to speak of. It was the foam brushes, with the more open foam disintegrating in use!!!
thanks for the info!!! A note on foam "brushes", I just read an article in one of my WW magazines, and they showed pics of the 2 types of foam used. Which confirmed a bad experience I had!! Some use an open pored foam, you can see the "holes" in it between the foam, the other type is a denser foam, you cant see the holes. The open pored ones will slowly shed there foam in some finishes and leave it in the dried applied finish as "dust nubs". The other will not.
2 years ago I made a living room set of 2 end, coffee, gentleman's, and sofa tables, and a matching TV stand similar to the sofa table but a few different dimensions for the flat screen, from premium select red cherry and walnut. So I had a lot invested here for some custom furniture. I seen the difference in the foam brushes, but did not know one had this problem, all tables had 3 coats of oil based Poly, nothing but dust nubs between coats, more then I ever experience B4!!! Applied in a basement with no wood working going on, at the same time I was making a piece of outdoor furniture and used a bristle brush, oil based Spar Poly, applied in the garage, windows and overhead door open, no dust nubs to speak of. It was the foam brushes, with the more open foam disintegrating in use!!!
Measure once, cut as many times as needed to get it right! Bob
56/57 Greenie with jointer, 85 Mark V with band saw, 63 Goldie with jointer, 3 ER 10s, 1951 vintage, Hernia from the Er 10s, Tool Shop SS clone 6" jointer, and 6" belt sander, Delta 10" TS, Buffalo 6" jointer, Craftsman 12" BS, 10" Ryobi planer. Compound Miter, and misc.
56/57 Greenie with jointer, 85 Mark V with band saw, 63 Goldie with jointer, 3 ER 10s, 1951 vintage, Hernia from the Er 10s, Tool Shop SS clone 6" jointer, and 6" belt sander, Delta 10" TS, Buffalo 6" jointer, Craftsman 12" BS, 10" Ryobi planer. Compound Miter, and misc.
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tomsalwasser
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- Joined: Mon Feb 08, 2010 2:09 pm
I hear ya Bob. Mr. Schrunk talked at length about choosing the proper foam brush and brought samples from Walmart, Home Depot, Menards, Harbor Freight and the only ones made in the US, the JEN brand. All were either too soft, too stiff, wrong type of foam, etc. Only the foam brushes sold at Walmart in a bag of 12 for $1.59 were perfect. If you watch the first video above you can see him in action with his foam brush. He likes to cut a 4" brush down to 3 inches.