Painting

Painting large surfaces from a wheelchair is difficult for two reasons: 1) I can only reach so far up, down or sideways; and 2) It is a total pain to clean paint off all the surfaces on a wheelchair such as all the spokes, handrims, frame and other crevices.

I have two sheets  of cut-up finish grade birch plywood that I decided to stain.  I gave them a sanding with a little electric “mouse” sander that was vastly less work than by hand that was focused on removing splinters from the sawn edges. 

It worked out that I had one large piece of plywood at desk height on my deck that I was able to use as a work surface and apron to keep the stain off my chair.  This was the first time I did much that much painting in the 33 years that I have been in a chair. It was a perfect day for outdoor painting with slightly overcast skies, temps in near 70° and a whole bunch of plants blooming on the far side of my deck. 

I thoroughly my time sanding and staining.  The first coat I was my version of neat and conservative with the poly stain.  Taking a break, I learned that it was relatively easily washed off my hands.  The second coat had my slapping that stain on as thick as I could without worrying too much over splatter.

Since I never planned on sanding & staining in the first place, all this work was way higher than spec’d in my original plans.  It will be a much nicer work surface for my table top.  I will need help from Lea to turn rotate the biggest piece that I used for a desk today so I can finish it tomorrow.

I am grateful for a nice afternoon making attractive splinter-free work surfaces for myself.