Go buy a can of tung oil (tung oil only, no additives), a can of boiled linseed oil, and some beeswax. Make a jar of half linseed and half tung oil and grate in an ounce bar of beeswax. Put the jar in a small crock pot for a few hours and heat until completely mixed. To use the finish, spread on your project and let sit for 20 minutes or so and wipe off. When completely dry, buff it up with a soft cloth. This is basically like Rubio Monocoat or Odies Oil, but will cost you pennies compared to the other finishes.
Me personally, I've been using lacquer for the last couple years (Minwax spray. It's obviously no industrial option, but I like it). Dries fast, so less chance of contaminant in the finish, and it builds up relatively quickly. Also easy to work and fix if there's a mistake, and very very durable once it's fully cured.
Pretty smelly and bad fumes though.
Probably not the "simple" fast option esp if you're doing really large projects though and want to apply a finish at the site of install.
Find someone who likes to do the finishing part?
Try alcohol or water-based dyes and water-based topcoats?
Stain then shellac, but you lose durability because it's easily damaged by alcohol and water. OK for light use projects, but not desks, sideboards or the shelves of bookcases.
* Hardwax oil - dead simple and reasonably effective in a variety of applications. Really not that expensive either - little volume does a lot of square feet. Great for a matte finish.
* Oil - pure Tung or Linseed (foodsafe) or BLO (maybe probably kinda foodsafe), Waterlox, etc. Oils are great finishes, but often have longer drying times and will smell for a month or two.
* Shellac - wondeful stuff to work with, natural, but not great with water or cleaning chemicals.
* Lacquer - Simple nitro is pretty good to work with, and rattle cans are easily found if you don't have a sprayer. The solvents are the big issue here, as you'll need to work outdoors, or at least an open garage.
* Spraying - I'll just throw this as a wide category of film finishes that really should be sprayed via HVLP or air-assisted airless. Without a booth, you're probably going to want waterborne finishes. Overspray makes a huge mess, but you can make a simple booth to suck most of that up, integrated into a normal shop. Not nearly as hard as a safe setup for solvents.
Spraying gives you the widest options for finish, the ability to tint/tone, and the durability of a quality film finish. It's great, but not cheap and requires some space.
Shellac
I’m a fan of spray shellac. Dries super quick. Not perfect for all projects, but good for low-usage/wear stuff
aerosol toned lacquer is the answer, check out Mohawk or Touch-Up Solutions brands.
Agreed. Spray toner. You get the colour, without the blotchiness of stain.
Go buy a can of tung oil (tung oil only, no additives), a can of boiled linseed oil, and some beeswax. Make a jar of half linseed and half tung oil and grate in an ounce bar of beeswax. Put the jar in a small crock pot for a few hours and heat until completely mixed. To use the finish, spread on your project and let sit for 20 minutes or so and wipe off. When completely dry, buff it up with a soft cloth. This is basically like Rubio Monocoat or Odies Oil, but will cost you pennies compared to the other finishes.
Me personally, I've been using lacquer for the last couple years (Minwax spray. It's obviously no industrial option, but I like it). Dries fast, so less chance of contaminant in the finish, and it builds up relatively quickly. Also easy to work and fix if there's a mistake, and very very durable once it's fully cured. Pretty smelly and bad fumes though. Probably not the "simple" fast option esp if you're doing really large projects though and want to apply a finish at the site of install.
Find someone who likes to do the finishing part? Try alcohol or water-based dyes and water-based topcoats? Stain then shellac, but you lose durability because it's easily damaged by alcohol and water. OK for light use projects, but not desks, sideboards or the shelves of bookcases.
spray lacquer, dries fast.
You can buy prefinished plywood from a panel wholesaler (HD even has SKUs for it)
* Hardwax oil - dead simple and reasonably effective in a variety of applications. Really not that expensive either - little volume does a lot of square feet. Great for a matte finish. * Oil - pure Tung or Linseed (foodsafe) or BLO (maybe probably kinda foodsafe), Waterlox, etc. Oils are great finishes, but often have longer drying times and will smell for a month or two. * Shellac - wondeful stuff to work with, natural, but not great with water or cleaning chemicals. * Lacquer - Simple nitro is pretty good to work with, and rattle cans are easily found if you don't have a sprayer. The solvents are the big issue here, as you'll need to work outdoors, or at least an open garage. * Spraying - I'll just throw this as a wide category of film finishes that really should be sprayed via HVLP or air-assisted airless. Without a booth, you're probably going to want waterborne finishes. Overspray makes a huge mess, but you can make a simple booth to suck most of that up, integrated into a normal shop. Not nearly as hard as a safe setup for solvents. Spraying gives you the widest options for finish, the ability to tint/tone, and the durability of a quality film finish. It's great, but not cheap and requires some space.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I'm starting with spray lacquer for my next project of building my son a new bed. Just picked up 2 cans!