Hello,
Handcrafted by Willard has the unfinished official size discs as is used at the
World Crokinole Championships.
WJM


----- Original Message -----
From: brianmiltenburg
To: Crokinole@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, July 05, 2009 8:25 PM
Subject: [Crokinole] Re: clear coat






--- In Crokinole@yahoogroups.com, "carlhilinski" <carl@...> wrote:
>
> Brian, here are a couple of suggestions.
>
> First you can get unfinished discs from workshopsupply.com in Canada.
That might be a good starting point.
>
> As pointed out, you have a wide selection of topcoats...urethanes,
lacquers, shellac. All have different applications and different
application methods and different solvents. Cutting the finish with its
solvent to get a superthin coat isn't necessarily the best thing to do.
The manufacturers will recommend levels of dilution and you really
should stay close to those. Finishes such as shellac and lacquer
dissolve the previous coat to bond with it. So too much solvent can
really cause deep problems in the finish. Finishes such as the polys
require sanding between coats and the new coat bonds to those
scratches...it doesn't dissolve the previous coat. But coats of poly
that are too thick can cause problems with the underlying coats, too.
>
> The final deed is the polishing. This really makes a difference. When
we polish our boards, we start with 220 grit, then go to 360, then 500,
then 1000, then 2000 and then 4000 and then polishing compounds and then
a high carnauba wax. Grits in these levels are hard to find at your
local hardware store. You have to go to someplace like woodworker.com.
>
> Here's my finishing suggestion. Do the final topcoat and let the discs
cure for as long as you can. At least 24 hours, but the longer the
better. Find a piece of 1/4-inch plywood (or anything slightly thinner
than your discs) and drill 24 holes in it 1 3/8 inches in diameter.
Screw this polishing jig to a workbench and drop a disc into each hole.
Now get out your random orbit sander with the superfine grits and start
polishing. The jig will hold the discs from flying all over the room
(under the freezer and places you can't reach). Of course you'll have to
do the edges by hand, but those are not as critical to get supersmooth.
If you don't have a power sander, you can wrap the sandpaper around a
block and do it by hand.
>
> The thing about final finishing (or rubbing out, as it's called) is
that this is when you really finally see the results of your labor. It's
also the time when you see the flaws. Something you hardly noticed at
the beginning stands out horribly when you're nearly final rubout
completion.
>
> Oh, and one last thing (I promise). Some discs are convex on one side
and flat/concave on the other so there is a "fast" side and a "slow"
side. If you were to use prefinished discs and sand them back to raw
wood, you could be affecting that.
>





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]