American workroom

Having ordered a ton of kits to be delivered here in Naples (FL) I thought I'd bring a basic box of tools with me to allow me to build some of them.  It goes without saying I miss the luxury of a whole room of my own to work in like I have back home but I know a zillion people who work in bits of their home that they can snaffle now and then and create masterpieces so it won't kill me to utilise the end of the dining table for a while.

The trolley in the background was one I bought last year when I intended to do 48ths!  It is now defunct so I thought it might be a handy place to stow 'the work'.

The two mats on the table were a dollar for both from our local dollar shop - something to save the dining table?

Here is the sum total of kit I have here to work with.  Incidentally, I decided to have a go at one-step finishing the wood using Danish Oil as this was an oil with a stain and maybe would would work like the oil I had used at home on the ELF kits.

I never found out.  Even after applying a strong bloke (married to him) and pliers the top refused to come off.  It didn't however, refuse to leak.  The subsequent smell and mess made me decide to try another approach.  We took the Danish Oil back and swapped it for this:

The promise being you could wipe it on and surplus off and you would end up with stained furniture with a sheen.....

I made up a chair and struggled to wipe on and wipe off said stain.  It is a double cream consistency and very hard to apply on fiddly little things.  The chair was a simple shape so it would be hellish on something as complex as a grandfather clock.

The result was not a nice colour and uneven distribution and very little sheen.

You can see where it hasn't covered any glue spots - to be fair that's par for the course with any stain and I am determined to stain pieces first and hope that super-glue will do the job of joining up the bits.

I think it looks like it has been acrylic painted and the paint wiped off - yes! I have even tried that in the past.

The finishing kit which you can buy ($25) for this furniture has a four step process.  I did it on one piece four years ago and it was the right thing to do - the finish was excellent but I keep trying to be lazy and find a one-step method.  It would also help others to have a go if it was kept simple.  

Right now I am living in hopes that Minwix answers my query and suggests a product that actually works!  Suggestions welcome.