Originally Posted by
costumegirl
Good job!
How did you restore the peeling veneer? I have a blonde cabinet that has water damage and lots of peeling, slivered and chipped veneer. I'm hoping that it is restorable like yours but I don't know where to start with the veneer loss.
These cabinets didn't have a real lot of peeling veneers. They were mostly chipped, so with those spots I sanded the edges smooth and went over those areas a couple of times with the Restore-a-finish. What happened was the raw wood was so much lighter so those areas are lighter as well. Most of those areas are down towards the floor or on the back.
The1891 Singer VS2 cabinet had badly peeling veneer, so I ironed them back down with an old iron I got at Goodwill. From what I read, you can smooth the venners back down by heating the glue again. My mistake was not to use a damp pressing cloth so I have one spot you can actually see the shape of the iron. You need to do it with a hot iron and a damp pressing cloth.
This is what it looked like when I aquired it:
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And this is how it came out after ironing, sanding, Howards Restor-a-finish & Feed and Wax:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]575768[/ATTACH]
It is far from perfect, but the cabinet & machine are 126 years old and from the looks have had a hard, long life. I hope I look that good at 126! LOL