Refinishing wood furniture

“Anyone have any exp. refinishing wood furniture? I have an old solid wood entertainment center that I"m going to take the ugly paint off of and stain. I'm not sure how to go about getting the paint off though. It's pretty thick, and the sander doesn't seem very effective so far. Any ideas? Some kind of paint remover I suppose?”

“There are many good "liquid" paint removers. I'd ask your local hardware store guy. What kind of sander? I use a 5" palm orbital to sand. I have about 6 others, but like this best. My wife likes the one that hooks up to (& powered by) a vacuume cleaner (for the dust) A vibrating sander is worthless. Again, ask the hardware guy. You put 40 grit sandpaper on it & it would go (completely) thru softwood in no time at all. The higher the number, the finer the grit (roughness). Wear a mask to protect your lungs from the dust. Goggles wouldn't hurt either.”

“Last time I did anything was when I was pregnant. I went to home depot and got some liquid remover that was non-toxic and actually worked! It was orange something or other....”

“What Sassafras said...it's Orange Citrus remover stuff...and it is in a plastic container. It works like a charm! You just spread this gook on the piece of furniture and use a plastic scraper to remove the paint as the citrus stuff loosens it all up.”

“Watch out for the "brain damage" paint removers.”

“The citrus based stripper works very well, and can go through several layers of paint.”

“That orange stuff does work pretty well. The nasty stuff works better but you'll need to buy heavy 'stripping' gloves, protect your eyes and arms and have plenty of ventillation.


Did you mean you're removing paint or stain? If it's painted, the wood may not be all that great, unless it came stained and someone else painted it.”

“The stuff the girls are talking about is called, Citri-Clean, I believe. I managed a store back in the 90's that sold all this stuff. We used to sell a lot of Rock Miracle stripper or U.S. Government stripper. Both are excellent for taking off paint and varnish, but watch the fumes. They are indeed nasty...”

“BTW, is it 'Stick' furniture??


bwaaahaaahhaaa!!!”

“1. use the citri-clean

2. if there is some uneven color spots, use bleach to even up the wood tone.

3. rinse with a wet rag.

4. sand with 200 grit paper

5. use a wet cloth to wipe the wood down. This lifts the fibers of the wood so you can get a smoother finish.

6. Sand again with very fine paper 400 to 600.

7. stain desirable color (I use Minwax "Special Walnut" for about every thing. if you want a light finish, use 1/4 SW to 3/4 mineral spirits. if you want a really dark stain, use it full strenght. I usually us it about 1/2 SW and 1/2 Mineral Spirits. Start light, you can always darken the color but can't lighten it up.

8. Put on three coats of polyurethane
A. first coat: thin the polyurethane with about 1/4 mineral spirits.
B. After the first coat is very dry, don't sand first coat and go ahead and put on a full strength coat of polyurethane.
C. Sand with 600 grit paper being careful not to sand through the new finish.
D. wipe the whole thing down with a damp cloth and let dry.
E. Put on the final coat of polyurethane with a good sable brush.
F. Let it dry and you are finished.”

“As fate would have it, our company owns a Furniture Repair Franchise unit.

I can send you some Magic Strip. It works like a charm.”

“Depends on how much stuff you want to remove and how patient you are.

Also, using standard stripper on lacquer doesn't work. You need a special stripper. Some, especially older pieces, have lacquer. A friend used the standard stripper on a lacquer and the surface only became 'gummy'.

Best of luck”

“I agree with most BS's advice except that after your final sanding, before staining, use a tack cloth to get all the sanding dust off if you are using an oil based stain - don't use a wet cloth.

If you have a fine wood, you might consider using tung oil rather than poly as it looks a whole lot nicer.”

“Tung oil is awesome stuff and yields great results...”

“Thanks for the tips, some of you really went into detail, and I needed that. I may pick up some of the citrus stuff. I need a good excuse to go to Lowes.

Violin in response to your question it's painted, not stained, but I'm going to try to stain it when I'm done. You think it may not be good wood and they painted it to conceal this fact, or what did you mean when you said the wood may not be that great?”

“Wait for Gojo to chime in.

(I mean he was a GD shop teacher)”

“Yeah - basically. If it was sold painted, the wood could be finger jointed, knotty or generally ugly. Worst case - after you strip it, you repaint it.”

“The wood on either side is finger jointed:

”

“What Treebeard said, tongue oil is very useful stuff.”

“If you have to repaint it, you can do the same application as the polyurethane above (#8)except with paint. If you do this you will get a very smooth finish. If you want a really smooth finish, after the third coat sand the piece with a palm sander with a square of a paper grocery bag on it an put a lightly thinned coat of polyurethane on last.”

“Okay. I'll have to wait to see what kind of grain it has, knots, all that stuff like what V man mentioned. I think it didn't come painted, at least not the color it is now. Judging by the schitty paint job, I'd say my sister-in-law is to blame. That's who gave me the thing (without asking). I came home and found it in front of my garage door, and for some reason decided to try to make something of it rather than tossing it.”

“If its nice wood and well constructed and you take your time to do it right, you'll have a peice you can really be proud of. I refinished my grandmother's bedroom suite about ten years ago and wouldn't get rid of it for anything.”

“I had an old wooden desk my wife refinished, and it turned out beautiful. We replaced the handles and everything. I didn't help her with it till the end, and the paint came off of it very easily, but this one isn't going so well in the 2 hours or so I've worked on it so far.”

“what BS said.

Hey Chili, I'll take ya up on free stripping product! (no pun intended)”

“Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me BB. Same here chili.”