testing out wipe on poly

Big surprise, my desk build has ground to a halt as I try to find time to put a finish on and get it as close as possible to the picture I had in my head at the project's start. Trying to finish both sides of  a tremendously heavy table top turned out to be quite an endeavor.

The good news is taking so much time gave me a chance to figure out what power management might look like around the desk. Initially I was just going to put a grommet like I did on the boy's desk, but that turned out to be a real pain over the holidays. He had a tree on it all Christmas that you had to crawl under the desk to plug in. Not doing that every time I have to work on something for school. Something right in the top seems like a more sensible thing to try. Thankfully I found one on amazon and dropped it in while I was testing finishes. I think it adds a nice functional touch without calling too much attention away from the butcher block.

Damn, this was surprisingly challenging to cut out.

But I think it will end up worth it.

That "focus on the block" thought process is the same one that ultimately had me skipping a stain and just sealing the top. Why not leave things as plain looking as possible. I ended up trying wipe on poly after not really liking how the triple-layer stuff worked out on the media stand. The stand still looks good, and I used it again to finish the kids' beds, but I don't really like working with it. It clumps up and it's difficult to keep it from getting too thick and having to sand down a lot of white gunk. I thought a wipe on poly might mean a smoother finish with less gunk. Mixed results with this as well, but I think that's in large part to doing this while it was balls cold out. I might not have been outside in -20 weather, but that still makes it damn cold in the garage.

One last dry fit with a back leg on just in case.

First coat, slight difference. Woo boy, this is going to take a while.

5th coat at this point, I think?

Shiny. I wish it would stay that way.

It went on smooth but thin, so there are a lot of layers on the table at this point. It's been a couple days now of putting a coat on before work, and then another at night after a run. I should have just picked up some epoxy instead. But things are getting finished, and now I just have to carry everything upstairs to put it together. Which is well-timed, b/c classes started next week and my project time has shrunk back down near zero. At least I'll have somewhere nice to work now.