A Rack For Her Glue Gun Part III

After shaping with power tools and rasps, the glue gun rack was left with a very coarse surface. I struggled with this surface for a while. I tried random orbit sanders. They didn’t work. The sculpted surface was too irregular and the pads didn’t rotate properly. I tried hand sanding. This was too much like work.

Not the smoothed finish right off the grinder.

Thankfully, Paul Lemiski of Canadian Woodworks came to the rescue with his recommendation of using my Rotex with 60 grit paper in Rotex mode set to speed 1. It took the rasp marks off better and quicker than any other method I’d tried.

The work horses of my sanding regimen.

Once the surfaces were smooth, I sanded it up to 220 using a combination of my RO 90 and sanding pads.

With the final shaping and sanding done, it was now time for finish. Rather than shellac - which has become my go to finish as of late - I used General Finishes Arm-R-Seal and the method explained in The Wood Whisperer’s Simple Varnish Finish DVD. I used gloss for the first two (2) coats and semi-gloss for the third. I sanded between coats with 00 synthetic steel wool and the final coat with 0000 synthetic steel wool. This left a warm and deep tone to the Walunut.

The last step was to insert the tile. To do this I squeezed a bit of silicone marine adhesive on the back of the tile and pressed it into the recesses I’d made before the glue gun rack was assembled. After spending a night under a clamp, it was done.

Just waiting for the glue to dry.

I presented it to my wife as a gift on our 11th anniversary. She’s taken to using it, and the desk and rug are now glue free.

The finished Glue Gun Rack (poorly photographed).

Additional:

Glue Gun Rack Photos

Glue Gun Rack Posts

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