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What is the best way to achieve this High-Gloss White Glass Finish with wood?

picture of glossy white desk

rob
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Seth Calkins
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  • See http://woodworking.stackexchange.com/questions/756/how-do-i-achieve-a-piano-black-high-gloss-finish-on-wood. As it stands the "high-gloss" part of your question seems like a duplicate, but we can reopen if you add details referencing the other question and explaining the differences (besides white vs. black). – rob Jun 14 '15 at 03:25
  • The "curved effect" question does not appear to be covered yet on the site but will stand very well on its own. It would be great if you would split it out into a separate question. – rob Jun 14 '15 at 03:30
  • @rob I wouldn't really consider this a duplicate. Not because of the Black Vs. White but rather, my question is specific to a curved product. (A Piano does not have curved edges in the same way this product does) The Question you're referring is specific to MDF. Whereas my question is not specific to MDF. It could be any material that would be easiest to achieve this affect. (Looking at an answer by keshlam he references melamine where there is no mention of this on referenced thread – Seth Calkins Jun 14 '15 at 22:46
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    The other question is not specific to MDF, but the idea in marking this question as a duplicate is that it will invite others to add more answers to a single question on the subject, rather than having multiple questions whose answers are basically interchangeable. If you think your question is sufficiently different, you may edit it to reduce it to a single question and clarify the differences, and/or open a meta question for further discussion. – rob Jun 15 '15 at 04:57
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    Also as I mentioned previously, curves and finish are independent of one another and should be separate questions. This is to help improve searchability and to make them more helpful to a broader range of woodworkers who may not be building the exact same project. – rob Jun 15 '15 at 04:59
  • "(A Piano does not have curved edges in the same way this product does)" Many pianos do indeed have curves like this table, they're just oriented vertically, example. So the same techniques can be used here to rub out and then buff/polish the coating. – Graphus Jun 18 '15 at 09:23

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The shape is probably best achieved as bent lamination or bending plywood or plywood kerfed for bending over a form.

Highly glossy surfaces can be achieved with wood -- consider a piano's finish -- with a lot of work carefully applying the finish, buffing it to smoothness, and repeating . But I'm guessing that in the case you're showing us, that's probably plastic ("melamine" or similar) as the outer surface of the laminated skin of the desk, unless this is a very high-end piece.

The main use I see here for a router is trimming the edges of the skin, and maybe in the drawer joinery (though I wouldn't be surprised to find them built with dowelled joinery). Maybe some template routing when building the bending forms or support framework under the skin, to make sure shapes match.

keshlam
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  • The image above looks very much like a 3D render so it's probably a slightly unrealistic reference point. Of course similar finishes can be achieved in the real world, but as you mentioned, this would be a high-end piece to achieve such smoothness with zero joins. – Ben Clarke Aug 13 '19 at 14:38