11-29-2015, 08:15 PM
You may remember the walnut slab counter top I've been working on. The Arm-R-Seal had cured for about 12 days and I decided to try rubbing it out. I tried just using Evercoat Triple Cut Compound on a foam pad on my ROS but that didn't do much of anything, definitely didn't remove the dust nibs. So I went to plan B and put a 1500 grit sanding disk on my ROS, sprayed the slab with some soapy water and went over it pretty well. That got rid of the dust nibs, cut some of the orange peel, and dulled much of the finish, but it wasn't uniformly dull because the top is not perfectly flat. So I switched to Abralon foam disks. The disks were soft enough to follow the undulations in my less than perfect slab. I started with a 3000 grit disk with soapy water and that did a great job of bringing it all to a uniform dull sheen and getting rid of most of the orange peel. I cleaned off the slab and switched to a 4000 grit, the finest they make it in. It looked really good after that and I could have just left it like that if I had wanted a beautiful satin sheen. BTW, the Abralon disks work great but they don't last very long. Both disks were pretty much shot after doing the slab which is only around 18 sq. ft. Since I wanted a glossy sheen I went back to the Evercoat Triple Cut Compound, but put it on a Griot's Garage Fast Finishing Pad. The pad allowed the compound to follow the contours of the slab and brought it up to a nice medium gloss.
And here it is:
I'm glad I went to the effort to rub it out. There was a learning curve (which I'm sure isn't complete) but it wasn't hard and the finish now has that hand rubbed look and feel to it. It's still not perfect but that's because I didn't get it truly flat before I finished it.
Anyone who says polyurethane doesn't get hard enough to rub out has never used Arm-R-Seal.
And here it is:
I'm glad I went to the effort to rub it out. There was a learning curve (which I'm sure isn't complete) but it wasn't hard and the finish now has that hand rubbed look and feel to it. It's still not perfect but that's because I didn't get it truly flat before I finished it.
Anyone who says polyurethane doesn't get hard enough to rub out has never used Arm-R-Seal.
Ought to hang it on the wall. 
