Finishing Another Toy Car

After first coat of urethane

I swear I already wrote about my newest toy car design, but I can’t find an article on my site. I realize that if I can’t find what I’m looking for on my own site, you poor readers that have to dig through my ramblings are screwed if you need to find an article. I’m going to have to go and fix some tags later.

Anyway, this weekend I got sick of looking at a bunch of unfinished projects in my shop and decided to do something about them. First up was a new toy car design that had been sitting, ready to be finish sanded, for two or three months. I screwed a 1/4″ piece of all-thread into one of the walnut wheels and chucked it into my drill press. Then I looked for some old sandpaper to use, I found some 120 grit, 220grit, and 300 grit. Not the best progression, but I thought I’d give it a try. After doing one wheel, I broke out some new sheets of 100 grit and 150 grit and sanding went much quicker on the last three. For the hard maple body I decided to use 100grit, 150 grit, and 220grit. On the front and back I had trouble removing the scratches from my oscillating belt/spindle sander, until I realized that the grain was switching direction, once I sanded with the grain the scratches disappeared.

So I wouldn’t have to apply multiple overlapping coats, I cut a few scrap 1/4″ dowels and drilled 5- 1/4″ holes in a scrap 2×4. Once I stuck the wheels and body on dowels like a popsicle, I can coat every surface without worrying about what side will be down on the bench. I chose to use the wipe on urethane salad bowl finish again for this toy. The last time I used it I found it was easy to apply and left a nice finish. Although when I use up this can I’ll just buy the wipe on urethane because it’s basically the same product — only in a different can and less expensive.

I applied one coat this morning. This evening I hit all the surfaces with #0000 steel wool and applied another coat. I think I’ll give it at least two more coats tomorrow.