what is the basic procedure for polishing a wooden cabinet.?

Question

i would like to give a black polish effect to my tv cabinet. what would be the procedure?and what all colors can i have in polishing apart from the usual colors?

its a new cabinet made of commercial board and teakwood panelling on it.i want the color of the polosh to be black.what is the procedure to achieve this.

Answer 1

You would first have to remove the existing colour or stain and the finishing coat which is probably clear lacquer. This is done by a lot of sanding using sand paper - and most quickly done by using an electric orbital sander (however you will be left with tiny circular scratch marks - hand sanding in the direction of the grain will always get the best result but is slower). Be very careful around corners, edges and delicate areas with the orbital sander because it can ruin the original shape of the wood.

It your cabinet is painted then you might be best off using a chemical paint stripper first before starting the sanding process ie surface preparation.

You will need to sand the entire cabinet at least twice or even more times with different grades of sand paper - the higher the grit number the better the finish will be - you would not need to go higher than about 320grit. You would probably start your first sand with 120grit paper to remove all traces of existing colour, next use 180grit paper over the entire surface making sure that you remove all the 120grit scratch marks.

The progression of sand paper would be like this: 120>180>240>320. To get even better quality you can then use special steel wool starting at 0>00>000. But you can just stop at 180grit if the quality is not that important.

At this stage you can choose your colour stain, which is a colour dye and best/easiest applied with a rag rather than brushing. I'm sure you can get a black stain and there are probably heaps of colours to choose from. Next you will have to choose a finish which is used to seal the wood from moisture. There are oil and wax finishes that are fairly easy to apply with a rag and then polished with a cleaner rag but you won't get a high gloss finish - to achieve that you will need clear lacquer or estapol which is applied like painting using a brush. It is best to go to a hardware store for choosing your options with staining and finishing as you need to make sure both products are compatible and there are also more options that I have mentioned especially with finishing products.

It is very time consuming work and if you saw one in the shop the colour you want then it might be cheaper and less work just to buy it.

Answer 2

Wood Polishing Process

Answer 3

I would need to know what you are starting with. Is it painted or varnished, or do you want to paint or varnish it. The color selection if you are going to paint it is what ever is available. I would not recommend mixing you own because it is so hard to match if you need more or you need to repair. If you are going to paint the polish comes from selecting gloss paint. You can make gloss have a polished effect by rubbing it out. You would not want to do this on anything that has very much detail as it does not polish easily.

Answer 4

if you are working with raw wood you can sand it with fine sand paper and use minwax ebony penetrating stain. let it dry completely if you need more color apply another coat . i like to rub the stain in with a lint free cloth to control the amount of color and evenness. then apply a varnish or was finish over it.follow directions on the can .