Paint on filler for Baltic Birch edges

Is there a paint on filler that will work on Baltic Birch Edges? This would be for painted slab doors. Other ideas?

Bruce Griffing said:

Is there a paint on filler that will work on Baltic Birch Edges? This would be for painted slab doors. Other ideas?

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How much patience yah got?

Long-term proven 'ere is to cut back a high-solids urethane varnish.

First few coats are water-thin, then cut to be progressively less-so.

By the time one is ready for the last coat or two, the voids are full, the edges approach solid wood/urethane, and the final coat(s) are compatible with the embedded 'roots'.

Fair-decent at damage resistance where a putty-type 'cosmetic' filler would chip and fail.

Takes time. Lots of it.

Not so much to apply. Its the 'curing'. Polymerization. Cross-linking. Wotever.

Must be why I mostly use store-bought doors nowadays as well.

Cut-downs off melamine/ other laminate MDF shelving, Oak kitchen-cabinet 'kits', or even the bucks sold for 'bi-fold' closet-door use, mostly.

Raw-edged ply, Baltic or otherwise, is jest too much like work. And won't always stay flat anyway. Not even Baltic.

That's a 'door' thing, I suppose. Pretty much by definition as to what doors DO, one whole side will spend its life exposed to a different environment than the other. Hence the prevalence of both sides laminated in Hong Kong's fire-and-forget kitchens.

Bill

Lacquer based sanding sealer before the urethane will save some time.

For foundry step joint cope and drag boards we use a water based automotive primer. The stuff we use is called "Hydrobase" The lacquer based ones work as well or even slightly better but I am trying to move away from lacquer based finishes for health reasons. A former coworker's cancer was blamed on the years of lacquer use.

2 coats of primer are a minimum 3 are often needed.

For a while I was using a lot of baltic birch and sealing the edges.

For the "custom" stuff, I rolled WEST epoxy in. That is also what I use for patterns and follow boards that will get a lot of travel over pilot bearings. Consolidating, dense, easy to sand, predictable and reliable cure time. You are painting, so it won't matter, but for brightwork, the surfaces adjacent the edges need sanded back to bare wood, or the epoxy will show compared to the varnish, though it blends in perfectly on the edge itself. With French polish, it works quite well, again, so long as the flat surfaces are sanded clean. Under brightwork, if the hardener is old and turning red, it might be best to use either the slow set (which remains clear longer) or bite the bullet and get a fresh batch of hardener. WEST once did some research and found that the aged hardener actually improves some of the strength and bonding properties, but the red tint can look bad under clear finish if the coating in not uniform.

On patterns, one heavy coat saturated in, sanded, and then a thin top coat, also sanded.

For furniture: one coat WEST saturated in, sanded when hard, top coat with shellac made from flakes.

For production stuff I was making briefly: spray coat the edges with General finishes Enduro-Var as part of the regular finish schedule; but emphasize coating the edges each coat. IOW, first spray edges to near saturation, finish spraying box, hit edges again. Just to point that avoids runs. With scuff sanding between coats, the edges filled and consolidated within 2 full coats. With 3 coats, definitely. For water based finish Enduro-Var sets pretty fast.

Here's the problem I have with Baltic Birch:
Everything I ever made with it develops raised grain within a couple years. Very disheartening. This is with a water grain raise step, then French polish. And with the Enduro-Var which is essentially self-grain raising, sanded between every coat. Many of non-production pieces were made with birch or maple solid components, the solid wood surfaces are flat, smooth, and satin glossy. Beside them, the BB has areas of extensive crinkled raised grain finish on nearly every piece. (BTW, the edges are still fine and smooth, FWIW)

smt

Bruce Griffing said:

Is there a paint on filler that will work on Baltic Birch Edges? This would be for painted slab doors. Other ideas?

Click to expand...

how much time do you have ?

there are better ways to treat plywood edges than paint, and even for a painted surface there are better substrates.

Six ways to edge plywood by Free publisher - issuu

dee
;-D

stephen thomas said:

For a while I was using a lot of baltic birch and sealing the edges.




Here's the problem I have with Baltic Birch:
Everything I ever made with it develops raised grain within a couple years. Very disheartening. This is with a water grain raise step, then French polish. And with the Enduro-Var which is essentially self-grain raising, sanded between every coat. Many of non-production pieces were made with birch or maple solid components, the solid wood surfaces are flat, smooth, and satin glossy. Beside them, the BB has areas of extensive crinkled raised grain finish on nearly every piece. (BTW, the edges are still fine and smooth, FWIW)

smt

Click to expand...

Did the Baltic Birch grain raise even under paint?

I have not "painted" any, but the production stackable unit system I was trying to develop had 3 coats of General Finishes Dura-Var floor finish with color toners in it.

A piece i made for the house got the same treatment, with no color added (clear). All the maple is bright, shiny smooth as a baby's butt. The BB panels all have extensive crinkled areas. A major installation for a client, that was grain raised before french polish, still developed raised grain a month later, as it was being installed. I sanded and polished that out as it was being installed, but have the sense (don't have time to query directly yet) that it may not be as smooth as it was when installed.

So, no actual "paint". Will be interested to hear your experience in a year or 2. I'd love to keep using the product, but am probably going to avoid it for finish surfaces and move back to something like Appleply (maple faces).

smt