Woodworking – Wood refinishing Part 3
Okay, now that I do know that this is probably a polyurethane surface, the first thing that I would like to do is to see how easy is it going to just scrape the material off prior to doing a little bit of sanding because again, I would rather use that method than use a chemical. So I have a few different tools here, to different types of scraper, the standard card scraper, that has been sharpened so that it actually has a little microscopic metal burr that is a metal hook that effectively will slice the grain as I go through.
In this case, just slicing off to finish and this is a number 80 cabinet scraper made by Stanley. It is pretty classic tool but essentially does the same thing. It can be a little bit more aggressive at least the way that I have got mine tuned up. So we will use this to see how easy this finish is going to be scraped off.
So, you could see, I am pulling off most of the finish. I know I definitely want to scrape most of this top down before I hit it with some sand paper. There is just no reason to waste all that sand paper and put all that polyurethane dust in the air. So I probably go through and scrape the entire top. I may switch to something like a cabinet scraper which again as you could see here is extremely aggressive. With one stroke I was able to get down to bare a wood.
So if I use this guy, I probably will be going to go over it afterwards with a little bit more of a gentle scraper and then go over the whole thing with maybe a belt sander in a light grip or possibly I am going to round more bit sander, just to smooth the surface out a little bit.
And just another note about this cabinet scraper clearly with this level of aggression, if we are determined that this was a veneer surface; there is no way that I would even use this. This would stand in the shelf. I may scrape some of the finish off with this but when it is a veneer you got a whole extra level of things that can be concerned about because that would have just probably burn through my veneer and we would have a serious problem on our hands but again having a solid top, I could be a little bit more aggressive.
Now one of the major concerns I want to mention when you are refinishing an antique like this is lead. You need to be concerned about what that finish has in it, if it is paint, if it is a clear finish possibly to stand any of those can contain some led component if the finish is old enough and it just happens to have lead in it. I am not sure the exact year of, I believe it was in the late 70s is when he decided to actually ban these products from having lead in them, so it is a realistic possibility that something does not even really a true antique could still have led in it. So make sure you know the history of the piece that you are working with. This particular piece, I spoke to the owner, I have an idea with the history and you could sort of to see just based on this condition how old it is. I do not really have any fear that there is any lead material in this but just to be safe, I probably will use one of this little lead test kits to double check and make sure that there is no lead in there. So you just can not be too safe. This little kit is available at the big box stores, home depot, laws, anything you got around you, even at regular hardware store. I imagine they are not perfect but it is certainly when you can sand the surface a little bit and create a bunch of dust and use that as your testing agent you will probably get a pretty accurate leading as to whether there is lead or not lead and the bottom line is if there are some lead, just let it go. You are better off not working on the piece at all at least you have already know what you are doing and you have got to experience working with lead. You have to wear special respirator, you have to make sure many of the dust that you make is taken cared of and if you vacuum it up consider the fact that that dust material is going to go right into that vacuum filter and it just has to be re-circulated every time you turn your vacuum on. So it is really not worth the risk. A lot of times just learn to live with the antique rustic beauty of the piece rather than try to actually refinish it, if you know that lead might actually be an issue.
I decided to actually do the lead test on camera for you, so you can get an idea of what to expect. Sometimes if you never have done it before, the results are pretty clear cup but you never a 100% sure, oh, is that pink, is that orange, and you will what color we come up with here. So the first thing I am going to do especially on this area that I have already pulled some material up, I am going to start sanding it. Got just that 220 grit sand paper here, you do not have to be aggressive. you just make a little bit of dust and get down into that finish layer.
According to your instructions, you have an area in the front to crash. Those actually a glass violin there but the cardboard is thickened up that it is not going to hurt you. Crash the back, shake it up, so you mix the two chemicals whatever reaction has to take place, takes place and then you squeeze it is just easy, some of that liquid come out of the tip and one of those go down into that dust that you have made and just swirl it around. Give it a few minutes, a few seconds, maybe a minute.
Now according to your instructions, if there is a lead present, it is going to turn pink. And the color that I see here is definitely not pink, it is orange, it is pretty much the color of the chemical when it came out of the stick to begin with. So at this point I would be really confident to go into this, just wearing my standard safety gear and protect my self in the standard methods. I supposed to go in through all kinds of hoops just trying to protect myself form lead.
Well that does it from part 2 of our refinishing series, be sure to check out the next video for more helpful tips and techniques and if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email us at Thewoodwhisperer@gmailcom.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services