Refinishing Furniture
If your home has, central heating turn it off
before starting to varnish a piece of furniture. This will help to keep the dust
from circulating and settling on the wet varnish. Do not let the temperature
drop below 70 degrees F. however, because varnishes (or glues) do not work well
in a cool environment. Remember that your workspace should be well ventilated.
When using stripper on a
piece of furniture that has legs, put a tin can under each leg to catch the
drips.
When gluing dowels, a dowel that
is exactly the size of the hole it fits into can push much of the glue to the
bottom of the hole and not hold as well as it should. To avoid this, cut a few
grooves into the dowel so the glue is distributed along its surface for a more
secure bond.
When you are working with
varnish, hold the container as still as possible so that bubbles don not form
and spoil the smooth finish.
If you would like to know how
your unfinished furniture would look it it were stained, try the " wet test
" Dampen a cloth with turpentine and wipe it over the surface, The moisture
will bring out the grain, showing any contrasts and giving the wood the
appearance it would have if stained.
To sand furniture spindle or rung without flatten it. Hold a sandpaper strip
behind the part one end in each hand and saw the ends back and forth rotating
the spindle as you work to but-sand the wood.
When refinishing, a flat rubber
kitchen scraper can be useful for removing paint from curved or rounded
surfaces, especially since it can be used even on delicate carvings. For
greater versatility, buy both wide and narrow sizes.
Sanding concave curves will be
easier if you hold the sandpaper around a piece of dowel the same diameter or
smaller as the curve. You can also slit a length of rubber harden hose and wrap
the paper around it with the ends help in the slit.
Many smaller items are useful for
cleaning furniture crevices and cracks when you are refinishing. Enlist the aid
of a nut pick, a plastic playing card, a plastic credit card, and the broken end
of an ice cream stick, the tine of an old fork, an orange stick, wooden
toothpicks, or an old spoon.
It is practical idea to use newspaper to protect your floor or workbench when
you are refinishing a piece of furniture, but the legs may stick to the paper.
To avoid this, drive a nail partway into the Bottom of each leg.
If you need an unusually shaped smoothing tool for use on wet spackling
compound and other wood fillers, try whittling an ice cream stick to the
required contour.
To smooth wood evenly and thoroughly in the refinishing process, work with
successively finer steel wool or sandpaper grades.
