one more question

[weflyfsh]

Ok, now that I have worked out the stem problems, I have another question.
In some of the spaces between strips, I apparently did not put enough force on the strip before stapling and there are now 1/16" gaps between some of the strips where the glue ran through. The strips are pretty tight and solid, but there are too many to fill with putty. I was thinking about taping the back side and putting extra glue for extra strength. My question is should I glue or putty these gaps?
Please help...

 

[Dan Lindberg]

Wefly,

I've never used putty to fill gaps, (either just got them tight or filled with a little glue.) but this sounds like a "putty" job.

When I used glue to fill small gaps, (less then yours) it just didn't seem to work well, some broke/chipped out during scraping, it didn't match very well, I just didn't like it.

As for the putty/filler, I "think" most folks use wood flour filled epoxy, making an attempt to match the wood colors. I haven't tryed this so can't give good ideas of how to do it.

Dan

 

[pklonowski]

gaps

For my stripper, I used epoxy with wood flour, as described. You get the wood flour from the dust collector of your sander -- then you can even use the dust from the same boards, though the color match won't be perfect.

If the gaps are as big as it sounds, you might want to glue in filler strips, as they'll look nicer than a wide putty fill. Use a sharply contrasting wood species (walnut?) and tell people it was a design element...

Mix the epoxy, then mix wood flour into the epoxy until it's like peanut butter, then use a putty knife to force it into the gaps. There's no need for tape anywhere -- this mixture is so thick that you won't have to worry about it oozing out.

The dust/epoxy mixture sands very nicely, but don't scrape it -- you will chip it out in big chunks, and may take some sizable wood chips with it. I was able to epoxy the wood chip back into place, but it was NOT my idea of fun!