miriam

That brownish stuff is the old finish and no you never remove that even though you want to so bad you can't stand it - that brownish stuff is what you French Polish until it is smooth - with out it you will need a new finish put on the machine. Some machines don't have it so pronounced but it is still there if there are decals. Mine feels smooth to touch now and less brown but I want it less blotchy looking. I can keep going back over it until I am happy. Right now I've quit on it for a while. I can go back over it any time. In Glenn's method you do not remove the old finish. You don't really polish over it you merge it into the new shellac. First in the process is Naptha. You do not have to spend a lot of time here. Just go over it and quit - once it looks a tiny bit dull quit. It cleans the old gunk and oils out of the old shellac then put the Naptha away for the next machine. The old shellac will still look yucky and brown. Then you put a little denatured alcohol on the rag wrapped around your finger and add some linseed oil. Don't use straight denatured alcohol ever. It will remove the old shellac. You don't want to do that. Ok back to the linseed oil and denatured alcohol, polish it once with that. It helps soften the old shellac and makes it easier to French Polish with out disturbing the old shellac too much.
(Glenn doesn't dip his rag wrapped finger in the stuff he tips the bottle to his rag wrapped finger and wets it but I'm going to say dip since I only have to type 3 letters....) Then you will dip your rag wrapped finger in the denatured alcohol and then dip it in shellac. You polish the machine with that over and over. When it gets difficult you can go back to the DA and Linseed oil. Glenn uses very little of each liquid at a time - and trust me it is the only way to go... Ask me how I know... No hurry... That little bit of shellac will eventually dissolve old shellac so you are just reviving the old and spreading it. You add very little shellac at a time - this is not really an application of shellac - this is re-dissolving the old and spreading it evenly over the machine. Usually the bed is the problem. Glen has had me add a little spray shellac if there isn't any brown stuff left on the machine - I like the results better when I don't have to add the spray. This is NOT an instant project. This is something you work on a little then go back and work on some more. You are using very small amounts of Naptha, raw linseed oil, denatured alcohol and shellac and LOTS of t-shirt material, dirty finger and very light touch elbow grease - let the chemistry happen. You can also use a little wax when you are done - see Glenn for that - I haven't arrived at the wax stage yet. This is so simple to do it is hard to wrap my brain around it. I had one machine I took down to Glenn's place because I wasn't happy with how it looked. I thought I was doing something wrong. He said I just hadn't gone over it enough times. I was adding too much shellac at a time. I wasn't letting the layers that were there re-amalgamate. I worked on it some more then I set it aside. I can go back to it this afternoon if I have the time. I think a lot of it is we are used to the instant spray on look at this!!! OH WOW... Glenn's method is an old world type finish and takes some work but is worth it for the look. If you wax it before you are totally done, before you work on it you will need to use Naptha to remove pull off the wax and maybe some dirt that clings to the wax - again you don't scrub at it - just go over it one time. It will dull things so don't freak out when that happens - your chemicals will re-dissolve it once again. Glenn says you may have to go over it every couple years to maintain the finish. Using the machine is a good idea - keeps it in better shape than if it just sits.