When to use Clean Armor 730 Grain Filler

Hi there, I'm Pierce with Light and Done and today we are going to be using Clean Armor 730 grain filler. We're going to be creating a perfectly flat filled surface on white oak, one of the most porous woods out there. When applied correctly, Clean Armor 730 creates an ultra smooth surface for building up successive coats of finish to get that mirror perfect finish that shows no grain.

First off, we need to prep our wood surface. In this case, I'm using one of my old project tables that you may have seen in previous videos. After each video segment, I typically take these and put them through my overhead sander and grind them down for the next video so I have a fresh canvas. We're going to sand our white oak top with our Festool 125. The table will be at 80 grit from the overhead sander. Then moving to the orbital, we will be going through 120, 180, and ending up at 220 grit. As you can see, this Clean Armor 730 grain filler is very thick. It is almost the consistency of honey. My favorite trick is to apply this with a flat edge, not a brush. This plastic edge is designed for epoxy work and moves the grain filler around easily. In some videos out there, I see this grain filler being applied way too thick. This stuff is expensive, and there's no need to apply so much just to scrape the excess off. I opt for a more reserved approach. Add just a very small amount and work it around before adding any more. You'll be surprised as to how far this material will spread. The other reason you don't want any excess on the top is that you are going to have to sand it off to create that flat surface. you are after. No one likes sanding, so let's keep that excess to a minimum. I would rather see you apply the grain filler sparingly two times versus one thick coat. Once you have let the grain filler flow out and settle into the open grain, cure the clean armor with your UV light or put it into the sun to cure. Today, since we have nice weather, we're going to opt to put this piece in the sun for curing. Now to start sanding this down for our second filler coat. Starting with 120, I will work up to 500 until I get the majority of the table flat. This will be good enough for the second coat. Now, let's rinse and repeat for the second filler coat. Start sparingly. You can always add more. Work the finish into areas that are still shiny from the first coat. That is showing you that you did not sand those areas and that it needs more filling. This should go on more easily and use a lot less grain filler. This second coat is designed to fill all of the small voids left over by the first application. I would rather fill up a few small voids, then sand down the entire table to get that mirror flat surface. Cure this once it is rested and flowed out and repeat the sanding again. Our goal is to create a base for any clean armor top coat, whether it be 757 or 700. I'm going to sand this piece out starting with 500 grit and working up to 1500 to show you just how flat and filled you can make this grain with Clean Armor 730. The grain filler is the base to this system for porous woods. All right, here it is all cured out, all sanded out. It's ready for any sort of Clean Armor top coat. I wish you could feel this and see this in person. It is absolutely perfectly smooth. There is no catches. There's nothing on it. There's no grain, nothing to it whatsoever. It is ready for finish right now. Well, that does it for another video. If you like this type of content, please leave a comment below. And if you want to see more videos like this about clean armor, it really helps if you hit that subscribe button below. See you in the next video.