Cabinet facelift and general refinish questions
 

hey all, let me start with a picture:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/members...270-334244.JPG

this is what I am working on. I am going to make the assumption that it is shellac finish ( and will test with denatured alky) my plan is to use either steel wool or a "scotch brite" pad and lots of alky to try an rub the top of this table. I am hoping to A: lighten some of the dark edges on the water stains and B: smooth the existing finish. I was then going to apply a new coating of Shellac. I was hoping this would preserve some but not to much of the used character of this old piece and brighten it up and preserve it.

my questions are...
Will this work ?
will I need to oil the dry area's first.... if So i assume I need to strip the whole top andd oil it all :(


commens questions or suggestions welcome.

Thanks
Dan.

Hey Dan - somewhere I posted pics of the exact same cabinet that my DH refinished using the denatured alcohol and Tung oil. Came out stupendous!! Take a look!

wow you have a lot of posts, I am looking but not sure where to even begin, are they in one of your albums possibly ?

Dan - here's link to info of how my DH refinished a cabinet just like that for me. He used denatured Alcohol & tung oil. It came out stupendous!! You would not have recognized it from how it was when I got it.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...t-t173279.html

Thank you,
Beautiful cabinet, I may have to think this over some.

Dan do not oil the dry spots on the cabinet as it will do nothing for the wood. the wood looks dry because the finish is worn off. Yes do strip the cabinet with alcohol and steel wool or scotch brite pad. rinse pad often in alcohol(it is messy) Once all the old finish is off you can stain to bring out the grain(a matter of choice) Then apply three thin coats of shellac by brushing or using the rag method of application. I as a refinisher do not recomend tung oil. It is not correct for sewing machine cabinets and will not have the same look. They use three top coats on sewing machine cabinets. Laquer, shellac and varnish(no poly) shellac being the most common top coat. Now keep in mind this is a matter of choice in the end LOL

I like tung oil .... for gun stocks, at least the ones I don't want shiny, those get Linseed oil. For this project I am going to stick with the original manufactured method ( shellac ) I was hoping to not have to strip the entire cabinet, I was kind of shooting for blending or repairing what was on it.... more to the point I could do all of the one surface but I did not want to do the legs and the table extension. At least the drop leaf is close to original color and will give me something to try to match.

Thanks for the advice everyone. i will try to get some photo's of work in progress and let you know how it goes.
Thanks
Dan.

WOW, that was such a pointless and ill informed statement that I can't believe I said it. I just came in from the garage I was out there about 15 minutes, it was so ridiculously easy to rub the entire top down that I cant believe I would even consider trying just to apply a little more shellac over the old. I am letting the alky dry up and then I figure I have maybe another 20 minutes of work to do and all of the old finish will be stripped off. the top has a few dents I am going to steam out a bit and then I am going to see how badly water stained it still is. I would like to just shellac it with out a lot of sanding or staining.

Thanks again, and pictures of it when it is dry from this first strip.

This is my favorite method for restoring. Works the best for me. http://www.quiltingboard.com/tutoria...s-t109859.html

Texas Jan

Mine looked just like yours. I used a citrus based varnish remover. When clean, it looked like a spotted pony. There were light and darker spots all over it. I used a Scotch Brite sanding pad and then used a good quality oil stain to bring the light color spots in line with the regular color. Looking back, a wood bleach would have made it all the same color and it would have perhaps taken the stain more evenly.