Anyone do a bit of door finishing>?? I’m estimating how much time to allow to finish (Stain/Poly) per door, jamb and casing. Doors/jambs/casing are clear pine. Average size door is a 2/6 6’8″. Doors will be hung then slabs removed to finish. I figure that will be the better way.
I believe there was a thread not long ago about the best/fastest/easiest way to finish doors onced they were hung.
Thanks
Replies
If you leave the slab hanging, then you can do both sides and the edges all at the same time.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
Thanks for your response FastEddie! Now I know how you got ur name"Don't take life too seriously, you are not getting out of it alive"
Probably important to consider is what state do you get the door in. What I mean is, I've seen doors that literally you stand up and start shooting. They're ready to go. The last pine 6 panels I got were a mess of wide belt sander scratches. We sanded them . . . at about an hour a piece to get them finish-able. Staining, if you use a wool pad, maybe ten minutes a piece. Spraying - 1 hour min charge for setup and cleanup, but each door is about 2 minutes once the rig is running. Brushing, maybe as much as 15 minutes a door. Depends a little on how convoluted the profiles are. That can make a finish pool and the guy holding the brush cuss a little.
"A bore is a man who, when you ask him how he is, tells you." -Bert Taylor
Don't forget masking off the hinges, or installing cheap throw-away hinges before staining. And sanding lightly between coats of finish, and additional time for weach coat of finish.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
I prefere removing the doors and the hinges and setting the doors on saw horses. I put some fabric on the tops of the saw horses so as not to scratch the doors. Even new doors should be sanded. I use a two sanders. The square palm sander so I can get into the inside corners and then I finish it all off with my ROS...take the paper of it and hit the inside corners.
I then use "conditioner" especially on pine doors! If you don't you will be sorry. Blothes are really ugly. You can still prop the doors up to hit both sides. I've done it in my shop so I have no problem putting two drywall screws in the top of the door and hanging them from the ceiling to the floor on strings. I'm sure you could figure out another way.
I just don't like the idea of taping off the hinges not that I haven't done it a million times before. Its just that if you have a lot of doors like I do and you are going to sand as well as I did I want no obstructions.
Doors that way should take you about 45min per door start to finish. Left on the jambs and its about half an hour per door with a lite sanding and then cleaning...don't forget the cleaning : )
PS...I "always" sand...condtioner is up to you but that adds time and expense as well but not much IMO.
Oh yeh...I always do three coats of poly...add 20 min per coat...more sanding and cleaning. Having fun yet? : )
If Blodgett says Tipi Tipi Tipi, it must be so!
Thanks all and appreciate the responses,
My times are about right (actually I figured a bit more but thats a good thing)
There are fourteen doors total and will be removing the doors for two reasons. I want to reduce the solvent odors as much as possible in the home and I feel I can do a better job in my new shop!
Yes I agree sanding is a must and I definitely will use a conditioner as I've done in the past. I never owned a square plam sander because we always did corners by hand, but I can see that being a usefull tool and probably save time and do a better job to boot. And just when I thougth we had all the tools to cover all the bases! It's a never ending tool buying life we all live.
Andy,
How is your home coming?? I saw the pics of your kitchen, the lady of the house must be in heaven!
I am just finishing up my own, all that needs done is to trim out the entire house. Not as old as yours, (1920) but I completely rebuilt it to include a new shop :) I even underpinned the foundation and 60 yards of Long Island Glacier Sand (a little clay but you have plenty of that on the north shore) later I now have 8' ceilings in the basement.
Be well"Don't take life too seriously, you are not getting out of it alive"
We've got the greatest painters in the world, who we contract with, and they remove the doors after marking location. We then install pieces of plywood on the top and bottom of the door that are about six inches longer then the door is wide and six to eight inches wide before the painters even start. This allows the doors to stand on their edges for painting and drying without leaving any marks on the doors. It's easy to access all surfaces both during and after painting each door, for light sanding between coats etc. It takes time to install the plywood, 20 to 25 doors, two guys maybe four hours for just the plywood attachment. Each piece is screwed to the door with min 3 screws about 2 1/2 inches long. Extra care should be used if solid core so that your sure ply is well attached for lifting and moving the door for positioning while painting.