Comments on David Keller's sun tanning wood

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M

maskws

Well-known member
I found David's article in APF very interesting as I have done this in the past.  I am currently working on my kitchen, making cherry cabinets.  For the reasons explained in the article, I did not want to put my cabinets or panels outside.  I found a tanning canopy (this is basically the top half of a tanning bed on a frame) on Craig's list.  It has 10 -100W 6 foot bulbs.  I was surprised how well it works, it seem to take about 4 hours to get what took 8 hours on a clear day in the summer.  The tanning canopy is designed to only run for 20 minutes (has a timer), so I put a box fan at one end on high to keep it cool and cut a board with a slot to slip over the timer to basically jam it from timing.

martin
 
I've used sunlight to darken wood prior to finishing. One caveat however. Make sure the project is finish ready. Once you start finishing, you can't go back and resand any missed spots as the sanded area will then be lighter than the surrounding area.  It will darken with time, but you need to stop finishing and wait until it darkens.

Howard Steier
 
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