Corner cupboard finish selection strategy

8/21/19, 1:46 PM #1

Bill Tindall, E.TN.
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Corner cupboard finish selection strategy

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Pictured is the need. It has 3 surfaces that differ in their finishing requirements.

The outside show surface- It needs to look pretty and be durable in a dining room area. This thing is going to be used and a minimalist "museum finish" will not hold up. *** Stain, Waterlox varnish. I love its rich luster. I can't achieve it except by some varnishes and shellac.

Interior- A varnish interior risks smelling like old varnish, a result of oxidation of the oil to yield rancid smelling degradation products. ****Zinsser waxy shellac. It ages to yield a fruity ester odor in an enclosed space and it is durable enough on the vertical interior surfaces.

Shelves- Needs to be durable and not stink ***Target waterborne urethane finish. Crappy luster by comparison to the varnish by not an issue for a shelf with plates piled on it. The front edge of the shelf I will shellac.

Re: Corner cupboard finish selection strategy

8/21/19, 4:56 PM #2

Kneale Brownson
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Looks great, sounds good.

- - -

I’m a fairly spry 82-year-old who had been a reader/participant at WoodCentral since the demise of Badger Pond. I started visiting BP to learn something about finish for a project I’d completed and became hooked on internet forums as a way of increasing my knowledge about all sorts of topics. I have been a moderator for a couple other forums on subjects I enjoy. My interest in woodworking began in the early 1970’s when my wife and I had contractors add to our house near Traverse City, MI, and I ended up doing the trim work to reduce mounting costs. I had no tools. I bought a P-C skilsaw, hammer, screwdrivers and one of those wooden miter boxes with a backsaw. I made trim for windows and doors from one-by lumber and started my woodworking career. At the same time, I started a 50-year career as a ski instructor. I got onto the night shift at a mental hospital so I could ski days, and spent my 30s and 40s with that schedule. I eventually replaced the PC-upside-down-in-a-board with a real table saw and began the purchase of enough equipment to fill a jam-packed 40-foot shipping container we used after we sold our property in Michigan. The ski instructing had taken us to Colorado and we were spending too much on maintaining utilities for two homes. A couple years ago, the dozen years spent at 10,000 feet of elevation was making my body produce too many red blood cells, so we had to leave my “forever” home in the mountains and we moved back to Michigan. Now I have to find myself a shop space for all those tools in the container.

Re: Corner cupboard finish selection strategy

8/21/19, 5:51 PM #3

Chuck Nickerson
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Thanks for this. I clearly need to be

Chuck Nickerson

more thoughtful with my finishing schedule. I'm working on a china cabinet (16' l x 7'h x 2' d) with similar use requirements but would not have considered three finishes.

Re: Corner cupboard finish selection strategy

8/21/19, 6:14 PM #4

Bill Tindall, E.TN.
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Re: Thanks for this. I clearly need to be

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

I'm trying to make this thing more complicated. Actually, it has become complicated enough as it is. And we haven't got to the designer or leaded glass part.

Actually, minimizing varnish is good. The others dry quick and I can recoat and be done in a day.

Re: Corner cupboard finish selection strategy

8/21/19, 6:46 PM #5

William Duffield
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Re: Corner cupboard finish selection strategy

William Duffield

Sounds like a plan. It all makes sense to me, except I'm not familiar with waterborne urethanes. I assume you are spraying the shellac interior? We've always used Zinsser 3# Orange (probably the same, renamed, as what you are using) and rubbed it down with 0000 steel wool or grey ScotchBrite. We also apply the same to kitchen cabinet shelves and other shelves, but we have always assumed the dishes will be washed and dried before being put back in the cupboard (maybe not a valid assumption in the 21st Century.)

Corner cupboard finish selection strategy

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