Caroline, you found a true treasure! I restored the top of my table. If you want to clean it up, here's what you do... This is only a 2 day process. Clean the wood top with murphy's oil soap. From your picture, it looks pretty grimy on the table in front of the machine.
After the grime is cleaned off, take the top off the table, remove all the hardware. Place the wood pieces on layers of newspaper. This next step is to restore your table, this will not refinish your table.(Restoring keeps the value, refinishing ruins the value) If you have any dark rings (from glasses, etc) use 00 or 000 or 0000 steel wool to buff the dark spots away. Don't use sand paper!
You'll need denatured alcohol and rags. The finish on your table is made from shellac, which is made with denatured alcohol. Pour the denatured alcohol on the rag and wipe with the grain, quickly from edge to edge. What you're doing is dissolving the shellac. As you spread it from side to side you're filling the scratches with the same shellac. Your goal is not to remove all the shellac, just move it around and let it dry again. After you see the scratches are gone, take a rag soaked with alcohol once again and go over the entire top to smooth it all out.
Once it's dry, use a paste wax for furniture. I used Briwax in the antique mahogany color. It's a fine furniture grade wax.
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I didn't do the sides, only the top and it looks identical in color to the rest of the table. The wax gives it a matte finish that won't scratch when my quilt pins slide across it. I wish I had taken 'before' photos! I'm kicking myself for not doing this. It was in pretty bad shape. The shellac was flaking off on nearly half the top, and there were rings from water glasses. It was filthy with thick black gunk in front of the machine, just like yours shows. (What's the matter with these people??? Don't they know how to clean? Yuck! LOL)
Last edited by Christine-; 03-31-2012 at 11:22 AM.