I first tried paint - a coat of primer, and then gel stain to create the
woodgrain. I read all the how-to guides, tips and tricks, even bought a
special faux-woodgrain tool to apply the stain. I practiced and practiced,
and then gave up. There was no way I was going to get it to look like the
original. Maybe for a cheap bookcase that you want to look a little bit
like wood, but certainly nothing that passes muster up close.

The final solution is so low-tech that it's embarrassing. Contact paper.
There is a wide variety of self-stick vinyl woodgrain, and I tried a few of
them. The finish you see is actual Contact brand - they call it Cherry.
It required precision cutting, but fortunately the case lends itself to
trimming with an Exacto knife, and then I had to glue down the edges with
contact cement. (Contact paper does not have extremely strong adhesive -
it's made to be taken off easily). After the edges were good and tight, I
used several coats of polyurethane. A couple of those coats were tinted to
make it darker - similar to toning lacquer. Sanded between coats, and then
buffed the final coat. The pictures don't do it justice - the contact
paper underneath polyurethane looks amazingly like real wood - more real
than the original.

By the way, Contact paper does not like lacquer. I tried lacquer first, and
it bubbled and lifted the paper. That's why I went with polyurethane.

All in all, it was a satisfying arts-and-crafts project. Way more time and
energy than the radio is worth, but I think it's very presentable and
certainly unique. It's got me thinking of other uses for this technique.

Jeff




"Ken" wrote in message
...


Looks great. So, the big question, howdja do it?
Very nice, give us the process. Ken