Beech & Osmo Polyx?

[pyleg]

I'm building side tables from beech, a wood I'm new to.  I had the lumberyard sand the pieces to 180 grit on their belt sander.  Is that sufficient for Osmo Polyx Oil?  I'm looking at that because I'd like to keep the wood close to natural color and, obviously, its relative simplicity of application. 

Thanks in advance!

 

[ChuckM]

The recommended sanding grit is120x, but no more than 150x; max. 3 coats. A little goes a long way, so apply thinly.

The best way to do so is to use a 3M white non-abrasive rubbing pad. Remove excess with the same kind of pad. Stir before and during use.

After using it on a dining table and a set of 6 chairs (2 to 3 coats) and another project, I still have more than half a can left. Cost effective, despite the initial price tag. The pieces feel very smooth after finishing even though they were sanded to 120x only.

THIN is the key. No sanding is required between coats. It dries to touch quickly, but do allow 8 hours or so before doing the next coat; it doesn't have any bad smell like the polyurethane.

 

[mrFinpgh]

You can go higher. I stop around 180 usually, but 220 works okay for furniture.  i wouldn't go beyond that.

For the closest to 'natural' color, use the neutral tint, which has 4% white pigment.

 

[ChuckM]

mrFinpgh is correct; furniture can be sanded up to 220x.

 

[rvieceli]

You need to be VERY diligent about removing the excess Osmo. I use a microfiber cloth and then put a felt polishing pad on the sander and continue with that. I also like to wait 12 hours between coats.

I will sometimes hit it 1000 grit between coats.

Ron

 

[mrFinpgh]

[member=3192]rvieceli[/member]  you're using the felt pad + microfiber to remove excess, or to polish it later on?

If using to remove excess, do you throw the pad+microfiber away after each use?

 

[rvieceli]

For the initial removal. The microfiber cloth is usually good for a few uses but it won’t last forever. The felt pad hits it when almost all the excess has been removed. The pad lasts for a while too.  It’s a process that works for me.

Ron

 

[jcrowe1950]

Great thread,

    I have been experimenting with both Osmo (more extensively) and Rubio.....both hard wax oil finishes whose origin was in the flooring industry. Tips in this thread greatly appreciated and there are a couple of further details to consider. Rubio has a single coating application, though I think two coats are better. It leaves a fairly matte finish with a single coat, with two coats it has a bit more sheen but for a nice satin finish, using the universal maintenance oil with a bit of buffing after the cure is a nice touch. Rubio also has an accelerator. These finishes are dry to touch in a reasonable amount of time but take much longer to actually cure (ask me how I know). For Rubio, the total cure time with accelerator is five days, twenty one days without. For Osmo (which actually has a larger number of products) Polyx, application needs to be followed by 8 to 10 hours before the next coat. Two or three coats are good, but after the final coat, you need to respect the seven day full cure time. It's not that you can't use the piece before then but seven days marks the full cure time. Now, here's one issue I am curious about. Osmo has a product called Liquid Wax Cleaner that I think is the analog of Rubio's Universal Maintenance Oil. Oh yeah, Festool has a hard wax oil finish called Surfix which was my first experience with hard wax oil....innovative kit. Finally, Rubio is a combination of linseed oil and beeswax and has, apparently, no VOCs. Osmo Polyx is a combination of vegetable oils (sunflower, soybean, thistle) oils and a couple of waxes (carnauba and candelilla IIRC). Osmo is very low VOCs as well but not as good as Rubio (which to my nose smells really good). Both are a huge improvement over most alternatives.

    Thanks for the various application techniques from various folks....I've been using the white non-woven pad for application with significant pressure in a circular motion followed by rubbing with the grain. After some time, I use t-shirt material to sop up the excess (hopefully if application was effective, very little). It's very important not to let either Osmo or Rubio set up for too long before removing excess (ask me how I know). After the 8 to 10 hour drying time, I use Festool's white 150mm vlies with sander set on 1 for speed and almost no pressure. One side note, I never use steel wool anymore...the non-woven pads have no ferrous ingredients...only plastic and alumimum oxide and thus cannot cause discoloration due to rust.

    Sorry for the ramble....this is a most timely thread for me and again, I really appreciate the hints and techniques from other FOG members.

JC

 

[rvieceli]

I have tired Rubio and the result was just too dead for me. I'm using Osmo satin and the sheen is exactly what I'm looking for.

I use a small piece of a white 3M pad to apply usually rubbing in a circular motion and then going with the grain. Per some instructions from the interwebs, I let it set for 11 minutes and then start to remove the excess with the microfiber cloth. When I'm done with that I slap a white felt glass polishing pad on an ETS EC 150 sander and run that over the piece.

During this final felt pad, I throw some cotton jersey gloves on over my nitrile gloves used when applying wet finish. Trying to touch the the finish as little as possible. I hang the piece form the ceiling to dry. As I said I wait at least 12 hours to recoat.

Lightly sanding with P1000 granat further smooths the finish and points out any problem areas. I usually stop at 2 coats but have been know to use 3.

I'm of the opinion that the OSMO takes 2 weeks to fully cure so I let i hang about that long until I assemble. I usually use the felt pad again after this time frame.

These are the pads I use:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H1ZX0XA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I may have gotten a bad batch but I really hate the Vlies pads. I find them useless fro this application. They generally fall apart on me almost immediately.

Ron

 

[CeeJay]

Here’s a Beech and Tasmanian Blackwood hall table I made a couple of years ago, finished with Osmo PolyX.

I sanded to 240 grit and applied two very thin coats of Osmo. It’s held up very well and still looks great IMHO.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rvieceli]

[member=72399]CeeJay[/member] That's very nice. How did you do the reveal between the top and the base?

Ron

 

[Stone Message]

I'm building side tables from beech, a wood I'm new to.  I had the lumberyard sand the pieces to 180 grit on their belt sander.  Is that sufficient for Osmo Polyx Oil?  I'm looking at that because I'd like to keep the wood close to natural color and, obviously, its relative simplicity of application. 

Thanks in advance!

I use Osmo, particularly PolyX 3011, all the time and my grits go from 60 to 240 but I have no 150. I always sand to 180 grit and have had no issues whatsoever.

Lovely job [member=72399]CeeJay[/member] on that hall table.

Peter

 

[CeeJay]

[member=72399]CeeJay[/member] That's very nice. How did you do the reveal between the top and the base?

Ron

Thanks Peter and Ron. I’m very proud of that table.

Ron I simply routed a 2.5mm deep rabbet around the underside edge of the Blackwood top to make the reveal, about  12mm in from the edge.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jcrowe1950]

I have tired Rubio and the result was just too dead for me. I'm using Osmo satin and the sheen is exactly what I'm looking for.

    I concur for the single coat of Rubio. But others have used two coats and Universal Maintenance Oil with nice results. YMMV.

During this final felt pad, I throw some cotton jersey gloves on over my nitrile gloves used when applying wet finish. Trying to touch the the finish as little as possible. I hang the piece form the ceiling to dry. As I said I wait at least 12 hours to recoat.

Lightly sanding with P1000 granat further smooths the finish and points out any problem areas. I usually stop at 2 coats but have been know to use 3.

I'm of the opinion that the OSMO takes 2 weeks to fully cure so I let i hang about that long until I assemble. I usually use the felt pad again after this time frame.

These are the pads I use:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H1ZX0XA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I may have gotten a bad batch but I really hate the Vlies pads. I find them useless fro this application. They generally fall apart on me almost immediately.

Ron

  Ron, these are great techniques and I will surely give them all a try. WRT white Vlies pads falling apart, I had that experience when I tried to use the Surfix process with Osmo. Using the Vlies on Osmo that had dried overnight worked like a dream. Just another data point. Again, thanks for the fantastic pointers....

JC

 

[pyleg]

Here’s a Beech and Tasmanian Blackwood hall table I made a couple of years ago, finished with Osmo PolyX.

[SNIP]

That's lovely.  I might try to get samples of the regular Polyx and effect neutral to see which gets the tone I want. 

Thanks to everyone for the great suggestions.  Much appreciated!

 

[Michael Kellough]

I like Osmo PolyX too. The only problem I’ve noticed is that the amber color fades in sunlight leaving a more more yellow color. My example was white oak.

 

[JonathanJung]

Unless their belt sander (I assume a wide belt sander) is setup right, you'll want to hit it with p220 with a ROS.