Tack Cloth

[utbva]

I am finishing up some ornaments to sell at a neighborhood boutique and I was trying to be very careful that the wood would be nice and clean before I sprayed the lacquer on them so I wiped them down good with tack cloth. It did take any dust off of the ornaments but what I didn't see until after they were sprayed was fibers left from the tack cloth. Apparently the fibers were caught in the fibers of the wood when I was wiping them down. I really made some of them look like a brillo pad. Now I am going to have to sand them again and then pick other fibers out with tweezers. I was wondering if others have had this problem and how the best way is to prep wood for finishing without causing more problems than I started with.

[Hobbyhorse]

I use tack cloths to wipe the down the surfaces of the undercoat after sanding and before applying the top coat of finish on my clocks. With so many potential areas to catch a cloth I don't think it would work well on fretwork and for that I use compressed air and a dry paintbrush.

Rhys

[guitarman]

Ditto with Rhys. The compressed air is almost a ' have to' to get everything clean as you need it. David

[Barefoot1]

Compressed air works OK except that you are putting more dust into the air. It has its applications but when it comes to prepping work for finish I wipe use the shop vac with a brush tip. Works great, no dust in the air.

[Sue Chrestensen]

I've watched Toni do our fretwork patterns and she always uses the vacuum..she also keeps a soft brush handy to keep the dust away..seems to work.

[utbva]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Stirring more dust into the air as Thomas mentioned is why I didn't want to just blow it off. When I do do that I will put the hose to my dust collector close to where I use the air hose so hopefully some of it will be sucked up by the dust collector. I do have to be careful that the part I am cleaning doesn't go flying into the dust collector hose too. LOL.

Hey Thomas, glad to see you back on the forum. How is your thumb healing?

[BobD]

Bill,
I'd put some sort of screen over the end of the dust collector...the mesh sack from a bag of onions, an old pair of your wife's pantyhose...

Bob

[Bill Wilson]

Combination of compressed air, brush and shop vac for fret work. I let the dust settle before finishing and haven't had a problem.

For larger pieces, I wipe down with mineral spirits, using a lint free (read well washed) old t-shirt or those blue paper shop towels. On smaller pieces I use an old toothbrush, dipped in mineral spirits to scrub clean (such as removing adhesize residue off of fretwork), then wipe dry with the t-shirt. To prevent any possibility of a bad reaction between MS and lacquer, you could use lacquer thinner instead. Let it evaporate fully before finishing.


I personally don't like tack cloths. Besides leaving lint, I've read several accounts of where they can leave a residue that could contaminate the surface and react unfavorably with oil finishes, don't know about laquer.

[utbva]

Thanks Bob for the suggestion, I have been thinking about putting something over the end of my hose when I do that. I built my dust collector from a kit from ClearVue. It has a 5hp motor and uses 6" pipe for ducting instead of the standard 4" so it does move a lot of air.

[loachchief]

I use a shop vac with a soft brush,my shop is 12'' by about 20' long this time of year i have a wood stove going so i have to becarfull of putting out to much dust also have to watch what i spray. But a shop vac works good for me.
Later, Stan