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Garfield - question about tabs and gluing


iwishtofish

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I decorate as I go, one floor at a time, and I also prime with white flat interior latex paint. I have a self-healing cutting mat and a cork-backed steel ruler or two, and I lay strips of painter's tape on waxed paper sheets and cut 1/4" strips for masking edges and door and window trim. I realize a lot of the prep work is tedious (so is shingling and laying clapboard), but the tedium sends me into The Zone; it's a Zen thing.

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I decorate as I go, one floor at a time, and I also prime with white flat interior latex paint. I have a self-healing cutting mat and a cork-backed steel ruler or two, and I lay strips of painter's tape on waxed paper sheets and cut 1/4" strips for masking edges and door and window trim. I realize a lot of the prep work is tedious (so is shingling and laying clapboard), but the tedium sends me into The Zone; it's a Zen thing.

A self-healing mat would definitely beat my piece of cardboard. I'll have to look into that.

Now that I realize I won't have things anywhere near done by any given deadline, I don't mind the tedious as much. I do find it relaxing.

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Now that I realize I won't have things anywhere near done by any given deadline, I don't mind the tedious as much. I do find it relaxing.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaah, yessssss, Grasshopper. You are now one of us.

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So, clearly I mauled this one 1st floor staircase piece, and I've been trying to do damage control ever since. I learned a slightly painful lesson about the need to score through on both sides of the cutout before punching it through. Fortunately the other three similar pieces aren't nearly as bad - probably because the wood was more agreeable. Here you can see where I've started repairs by gluing pieces of scrap where original wood was torn away:

mess_01post_zps796fb7fa.jpg

And then, after sanding:

semi-repaired01post_zps190acb37.jpg

The shadows make things look a bit worse than they do in reality. If I end up painting these white, I'll use some of the white Elmer's wood filler I have to makes things even nicer. I don't have any joint compound at the moment.

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You've got a good base for repairs. I've found the regular wood-colored wood filler to be too thick and crumbly for this delicate work. Will be interested to learn how the white filler works.

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You've got a good base for repairs. I've found the regular wood-colored wood filler to be too thick and crumbly for this delicate work. Will be interested to learn how the white filler works.

Kathie, I messed with the white filler a little bit on a piece of scrap wood, and it seemed pretty useable. I'll certainly post results if I use it for actual repair.

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I prefer spackling compound because it's lightweight, very cooperative, and sands a beautiful smooth finish when dry.

I need to get some. It doesn't stain well, does it? I've been patching with wood on the staircase because I had originally planned to stain those parts (not so sure, now).

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Burnt sienna and burnt umber are two paints that can simulate wood stains. Use it thinner than usual or do the quick wipe on ~ wipe off motion with a small soft cloth or soft brush. You can use a stiffer brush to squiggle in some wood grain marks.

You can also mix small amounts of paint in the spackle as a tint to help disguise it. Go a tad lighter so your final coats will end up similar shades.

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When I first began my Garfield I used Minwax stain but I had to do it outdoors because of the odor. I do love the way things turned out but you have to be very careful as glue and stain do not mix. I found an easier way and one that is more forgiving with no odor and I can do it indoors.....acrylic paint! I simply mix the colors and viola....I achieved the same look as my Minwax red chestnut stain. You can also get stain colors in paint i.e., mahogany or oak for example and then add additional colors such as red which I did to mix the paint to match the wood color I was looking for. I also agree with Holly that spackle works really great as it is easy to use and easy to sand and paint. Hope all this information is helpful. And getting a self healing mat is another great investment. I use mine all the time.

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Burnt sienna and burnt umber are two paints that can simulate wood stains. Use it thinner than usual or do the quick wipe on ~ wipe off motion with a small soft cloth or soft brush. You can use a stiffer brush to squiggle in some wood grain marks.

You can also mix small amounts of paint in the spackle as a tint to help disguise it. Go a tad lighter so your final coats will end up similar shades.

Great tip - thanks! I'll be referring back to this thread for a lot of info.

When I first began my Garfield I used Minwax stain but I had to do it outdoors because of the odor. I do love the way things turned out but you have to be very careful as glue and stain do not mix. I found an easier way and one that is more forgiving with no odor and I can do it indoors.....acrylic paint! I simply mix the colors and viola....I achieved the same look as my Minwax red chestnut stain. You can also get stain colors in paint i.e., mahogany or oak for example and then add additional colors such as red which I did to mix the paint to match the wood color I was looking for. I also agree with Holly that spackle works really great as it is easy to use and easy to sand and paint. Hope all this information is helpful. And getting a self healing mat is another great investment. I use mine all the time.

Very helpful info...thanks!

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No, spackle doesn't stain, but neither does wood putty, not even the so-called :stainable" kind. I've had best results making my own from wood sawdust, stain and tacky glue.

That's good to know - I think it has helped me decide to paint the balusters rather than stain them, since I mauled them so badly and feel more confident at this point in my ability to use either wood filler or spackle than other options.

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Had quite a time trying to tape this together to get an idea of how things go - it kept falling apart. Guess I better get used to that, because I know it will get trickier as I build up. At first I didn't think I could get it square around the first floor landing:

stairs_together01post_zps5dabd229.jpg

But then it seemed to come tegether. The top left corner of the railing isn't square because the wood is warped, but it bends together without much stress. I'll glue that last, I guess.

stairs_together02post_zpseeddfce6.jpg

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It took me a while (sadly) to figure out why that piece of the landing is sticking out, but I finally surmised it is to match the stairs. Tell me that's right, haha. You can definitely see in these pics where there is much needed spackle or wood filler. :(

stairs_together03post_zpsad1e27be.jpg

I also had quite a time trying to figure how the stairs and risers would fit together and need to be glued. I think this is right(?):

stairs_together04post_zps1c210ed2.jpg

Oh, and Christmas came early today in the mail. A timely and thoughtful gift:

xacto01post_zps5f7b8c92.jpg

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You might want to invest in a small corner clamp when you're ready to glue those baluster sections together (which I would wait to do last, before installing the banister rails). You might want to consider making an album of your build pictures for the gallery here there is no limit to how many of them you can post in your postings.

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I guess my next step is to try to remove more blemishes from the wood, and to then paint the wall/baluster panels and stain the steps, risers, and banister rails. The painting concerns me, as I really want to not have it get in the way of the gluing. Holly, do you think I should paint after gluing just the large parts together? I could probably even prime inside the dead space once it's glued together but not yet installed on the flooring.

I hope nobody minds the pictures in this thread, and that they help in reference to my questions. I'd like to add gallery pics as steps are completed (something I haven't accomplished yet).

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Pictures of your building process will help future builders of this type of stair and this kit, as well as captioning how you dealt with problems. Will you be able to install your stained risers and treads into your assembled, painted staircase? I painted my stringers for the Washington before I glued the risers and treads, but t added the balusters to the treads after they were all attached, and then glued the banister rail to the tops of the balusters (with many *magic* words).

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Some folks use the inside areas as closets, hide away spots or small bathrooms. You might want to prime the insides too in case you head down that road. Some add lots of embellishments and trims to jazz it up as well.

Some folks leave them removable for ease in changing decor later on in that tight front hall. Will you be using the fireplace on the parlor side?

I strongly advise painting as much as possible while you can do it flat. It looks so much cleaner and crisper, imo.

Stair edges sometimes need light spackling to be smooth and realistic ~ faux bullnose. I despise the porousness of the edges. It looks "kit-ish" to me and not finished. Again just my opinion.

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One other thing ~ about the pictures in the threads ~ there is a limit on how many of those you can do and you will eventually get a message saying you have exceeded your limit. Then you'll need to go in and delete some, leaving "holes" in your text in the thread.

With the albums, there is no limit. You can use the My Media button (available in the non-mobile version) to insert copies from your albums and not use up your limit. Or you can just add links to the album pics w/o using up your limit.

Just thought you might not be aware of all that.

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Thanks, Selkie - I wasn't aware of the picture limit. I'm kind of stuck on the ways of the aquarium forums I've contributed to for so long, where a "build thread" vs. blog is kind of the norm (not that I started this particular thread with that intent). The differences will take some getting used to. :)

Yes, I'm going to try giving smoothing the stair edges a go. I don't like the rough edges either, but, alas, my skills are rough. Then I guess I'll try to prime and paint what I can while unassembled.

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Kathie, I did a little more experimenting with the white wood filler. I'd have done one with spackle, too, if I had some on hand. The filler seemed to work pretty well. I could have used some finer sandpaper and done a neater job, but here's what it looked like:

Pre-application (obviously):

filler03_post_zps22801f12.jpg

Dried before sanding:

filler02_post_zpsc1e05362.jpg

Sanded:

filler01_post_zpsbc058341.jpg

Won't be doing that to smooth out the pitted stair tread edges, as I'll be staining those.

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