Saturday, July 12, 2014

Sabbatical Day 32 - Catch-up with Paint

My company, Red Gate software, has given me a 6 week sabbatical. I’m documenting the time with all the posts under a tag if you want to follow along.

I'm almost out of time and I leave Monday for the UK. So it's another Saturday catch-up day.

I started the day with a trip to the store. I had to go out anyway, so I grabbed a few more sanding belts and got back to work on things.

Photo Jul 12, 1 59 17 PM

Using some new 36 grit sandpaper, I first hit a few rough spots where one of the 3 boards making up a side was taller than others. This went quickly, giving me a relatively smooth surface.

Then I switched to 80 grit and went up and back, flipping the pole after each passage until all 4 sides were done at that level.

Photo Jul 12, 2 00 29 PM

I next went to 120 grit, which is good surface prep. It's slow going and messy, as I cut lots of wood dust from the tops, along with some epoxy, but as I worked each side, it was becoming more and more of a pole.

Photo Jul 12, 2 01 10 PM

The first two grits also helped me round the top more, breaking and easing the edges on all sides, even where the router didn't cut deep. At the end, I had a heck of a pole.

 

Priming

I wanted to get moving, so I decided to prime the pole. However I first needed to fill in a few spots, which I did with wood filler.

Photo Jul 12, 2 24 23 PM

Then I started with the first coat of primer. I'm actually thinking to do a couple here, and the plan I had was to do the top and one side, then go back and do the other side and the top again.

Photo Jul 12, 3 18 51 PM

I completed one coat, the flipped it over and did the same thing on the other side. This was all "four" sides get two coats.

Photo Jul 12, 3 34 34 PM

The last coat wasn't completely dry when weather came in and I had to hurriedly cover things as the rain started to fall.

I need to order my truck now that I know the top size (2 1/2") and then also get more paint. Hopefully I can paint things tomorrow sometime and then start working on the base.

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