Refinishing the dining room table....

[electra225]

Be careful what you promise your wife. Mine doesn't forget ANYTHING, EVER. We bought a new dining room table a couple years ago. It is made in Mexico from old barn wood. Sturdy enough you can park a car on it. In fact, it's built so sturdily, I copied it, minus the fancy wood work on the legs, for my shop bench. The finish on this table was called "wax". The store that sold the table has refused tell me, exactly, WHAT material they used on the table. I wanted the name of the compound and the brand. No dice. The problem is that the "wax" they put on the table is extremely delicate. We use double heat pads, but we still turn the finish white. ANY moisture whatsoever will do the same. I decided to clean the top, put a couple wash coats of shellac on it, then apply three of four brush coats of water-borne polyurethane. Water-borne so we wouldn't have all the fumes from oil-based poly in the house. When I put the shellac on the table, the finish softened. I believe what they put on the table was shellac. It made the wood pretty, but I don't think shellac is an appropriate top coat for a dining room table. I told the wife that as soon as the weather was pretty enough to leave the doors open with just the screen doors, I'd redo the table. Yesterday was the first nice day we could keep the doors open, but I had to work. Today is the day. I still have one more coat of shellac to put on, then, in the morning, I'll put on three of four coats of poly, two hours between coats. I'm going to polish my car in between coats of poly tomorrow. Then maybe I can get some bench time in yet before Saturday.

[William]

Promises, promises, be careful what you promise. At least it should be just a one-day job. It's too bad they would not tell you what the finish was so maybe you could avoid all of this work.

Bill

[electra225]

Well, crummy buttons.

The same cat who turned the coffee maker off, just walked thru my fresh shellac and left cat tracks on the top of the table. Now I get to sand out those places, then touch up the shellac.

Boy, I really am dating myself saying "crummy buttons". How long has it been since you had some Crummy Buttons?

[TC Chris]

My Mom had a big pine dining table, finished likely in a toned lacquer, and eventually it was fairly well beat up. Did I volunteer to refinish it? Oh "deleted" no; I've read Tom Sawyer. I convinced her that DIY was lots of fun and gave step-by-step instructions. Finish removal, sanding, staining, finishing with a dull polyurethane. Turned out pretty well, too.

Chris Campbell

[Motorola minion]

My Mom had a big pine dining table, finished likely in a toned lacquer, and eventually it was fairly well beat up. Did I volunteer to refinish it? Oh "deleted" no; I've read Tom Sawyer. I convinced her that DIY was lots of fun and gave step-by-step instructions. Finish removal, sanding, staining, finishing with a dull polyurethane. Turned out pretty well, too.

Chris Campbell

Sounds like a very familiar piece but my wife dislikes furniture moves/adds/changes so, I can't "promise" to do it, that would be a response to her asking. I actually have to talk her into it .
I have a DR table that my Dad made from 2.5" thick pine boards in the late 40s for his parents, it is now an heirloom that I have had for long enough in its present condition. I may do this myself and have the "painter" use catalyzing varnish.

[electra225]

I had never used water-borne wood finishes before. I was impressed with the water-borne glue I used on the Tolex, and am equally impressed with water-borne poly. I realize that "poly" is a bad word on the big forum, but not on this one. The material in the can looks like milk. It says right on the can that it may go on with a milky appearance, but will dry clear. It does just that. You go at a 45 degree angle with your work if you get air bubbles in the finish. Takes them right out. The material dries to the touch in about ten minutes. The end of the table you start at is dry by the time I get to the other end. The instructions say to wait two hours, sand with 220 grit paper, (I used 320) then recoat as many coats as you would like. They say three coats will give maximum protection. I'm using semi-gloss material which is about the sheen of the shellac. The dried material looks like it has been sprayed, but it was applied with a 2 1/2" sash brush. I tend to get better coverage with less streaking with a sash brush, but that is just my personal preference. You don't want to over-work the material. Just get it on evenly, not too heavy so it puddles, and get all the bubbles out. I have the patio open to the screen with a 12" fan blowing on the table and exiting the fumes. There aren't many fumes with this stuff, not nearly as bad as the oil-based polyurethane.

[19&41]

Bet your dry climate is just the thing for that finish.

[electra225]

My wife was really disappointed with the finish on this table from day one. She had it specially built. I think it's well-built, but the finish was sure not very durable. She is happy now, so that's the main thing. We'll see how durable this finish is. From what I've read, it seems most folks are happy with it.

[William]

Greg, please tell me more, and others that want to know, just what you put on the table. I know what "poly" is, but I guess I never realized there were different kinds/types other than gloss or satin.

Bill

[electra225]

I cleaned the original finish, using plain old clean dishwater with dishwashing detergent. Then I sanded the orignal finish with 400 grit wet sandpaper. Then I put on two coats of Zinsser Shellac/sealer, sanding between coats with 320 grit, wiping the residue with a cloth and clean warm water. I dried the surface. I sanded the two coats of shellac after letting it stand all night. Then I applied three coats of Minwax Polycrylic water-based semi-gloss polyurethane, two hours between coats. I sanded between coats with the 320 grit paper and removed residue as above. There are four sheens of Polycrylic, gloss, semi-gloss, satin, and flat. Oil-based polyurethane typically comes in three sheens, gloss, semi-gloss and satin. Oil-based poly is probably tougher than water based, but it is really fumy, really too fumy for use in the house around people and critters. The Polycrylic I used had very little odor. I used the shellac as a sealer. Shellac and Polycrylic are designed to be applied by brush or by wiping. I used a 2 1/2 inch sash brush

Shellac has been around a long time. It has a myriad of uses. Since this table had an unknown finish on it, I used the shellac to seal the finish so the poly would not react with the original finish, possibly causing it to lift. Polyurethane is essentially impervious to moisture and stains. I think I'd seriously consider refinishing a radio cabinet with brush-on water-based poly. I don't believe even the snoots could tell it had not been sprayed.

[TC Chris]

I have a DR table that my Dad made from 2.5" thick pine boards in the late 40s for his parents, it is now an heirloom that I have had for long enough in its present condition. I may do this myself and have the "painter" use catalyzing varnish.

Query whether a fancy two-part finish is warranted for a table top. In the early 1950s my Mom bought a used round oak pedestal dining table, likely from 1910s or 1920s. It had been painted white and was a utility-room table. Then it was in the way and she gave it to family friends who used it as a basement table. It acquired a couple sawblade nicks in that service. The pedestal came unglued and before they tossed it they offered it back to Mom. I took it, reglued the pedestal, removed the old finish, and stained then varnished with store-brand polyurethane varnish. That was in 1977. It has served as my dining table ever since, which includes service as an electronic service bench from time to time. About 5 years ago, after 41 years of use, it was a bit scratched up. I recoated the top, using the rest of the original can of varnish. Yup, still usable. Turned out just fine. The point is, don't overdo the finish.

Oh, and the table it replaced in 1977? That was a maple one, stained in that Early American orange color. It went into storage but got hit by a flood and the top, solid maple edge-glued, came unglued. I felt awful because it was a nice table. For years I walked past it, thinking "Some day I'll reglue that." About 10 years ago I bought a biscuit cutter and reglued the top, then refinished it and gave it to my niece and her husband. They are still using it.

Claire's table.JPG (55.19 KiB) Viewed 4783 times

Chris Campbell

[William]

It always warms my heart when families pass down things. Back in the day, like most stuff back then, everything was built to last whether it was intended or not by the manufacture. By the better built/over built process it allows us the opportunity to pass things down from one generation to another. I like that.

Bill

[Motorola minion]

It always warms my heart when families pass down things. Back in the day, like most stuff back then, everything was built to last whether it was intended or not by the manufacture. By the better built/over built process it allows us the opportunity to pass things down from one generation to another. I like that.

Bill

Sometimes the second generation paints it to fit in their place, then a third generation undoes that and makes it original.
Since I'm the third generation to have this furniture as well as my wife and her family pieces, we seem to be rare these days.
Most starting out want everything new and in style.

[Firedome]

We've bought very little new in the way of furniture, in both places we have either stuff that was passed down to us (some of which is now in our kid's houses) or bought, often quite inexpensively, used 1940s to '60s Early American solid Maple furniture. It's so much better built than all but the most expensive new furniture, so much of the new stuff is imported, mostly from Asia of lesser quality wood, and not made in Grand Rapids MI, Jamestown NY, or High Point NC of the best hardwoods any more. Once more, as is so often true, older is better, it was made to last and be passed on.

[TC Chris]

My parents moved from NC to MI in about 1950 with all their belongings in Grandpa's '41 Plymouth with a one-wheel Allstate trailer towed behind. They bought some new furniture once they bought a house, including that pine table that I Tom-Sawyered Mom into refinishing, but then she discovered estate sales. Buy good old stuff, way cheaper than now and not-so-good. I grew up in a house with used stuff. Once my parents were visiting just after I bought my first house. We were in an antique store and there was a big mahogany chest of drawers, a reproduction by Johnson of Grand Rapids, with really cool crotch veneers on the drawer faces. My Dad suggested I buy it. The price tag was like $60 and I hesitated. Dad said, "You can't buy cheap unfinished pine for that price." That clinched it. Later in one of my sister's antique magazines I saw the original from which this had been reproduced.

Still have the trailer....

Chris Campbell

[Firedome]

"Still have the trailer...." LOL ... why are we not surprised!
It's probably a "collectible" now!

[TC Chris]

It's probably a "collectible" now!

Well, yes it is. If something has a web page, it must be collectible, right? Here's a page on Sears one-wheelers. Mine is the one shown as appearing in the 1941 catalog with the "ornamental pattern painted in a different color." The wooden box is green and the striping is yellow. Very jaunty. Note that the $35.95 cash price is "with tire and tube." That's kinda like offering a car and adding "with engine." Mine has lived in a garage since it arrived in Michigan. It has been pressed into service twice since 1950. The first was when I bought the Wurlitzer 1100 jukebox for $25 (practically my life savings at the time) in about 1964. We went to Sears, bought a strap-on bumper hitch, hooked the trailer behind the Chevy, and hauled the jukebox home.

Then my brother hung the trailer behind his Jeep CJ5 and moved stuff down to college in Ohio, very early 70s.

Right now its iron brackets are bolted onto the Ranger's bumper brackets so I can move the trailer to storage when we sell Mom's house.

Chris Campbell

[TC Chris]

Oops, forgot the trailer link:

http://dragonwing.biz/sears%20swt.htm