[Sherif]

Hello,

I have this table which has some sentimental value to me, that I want to turn it into a nice refurbished table.

Where to start?
Should I sand to remove the old finish and gloss? or use chemicals?

I was considering the Festool Rotex 150, which has both options of rough and fine sanding. But what about the curves?

What to do with those cracks? Use wood filler?

Finally, and most importantly, how to tackle the joints? As you can see it was made with dowels, then some one glued it badly, and it lost its strength. Should I remove the old dowels and make others somewhere else or what? :blink:

The other joints are in place, but not rigid, should I leave them or dismantle them?

I am not a woodworker, just hobby, but extreme passion for wood and tools.

Any help would be highly appreciated.:thumbsup:

Thanks all.

 

[MasterSplinter]

Do you have pic of the top and the cracks you mentioned? I would use the same dowels if still in good shape. The joints that are loose. If they can be gently taken apart I would reglue them.

 

[daveinjersey]

If you need to get rid of the old finish - if the old finish is too damaged to repair, I'd search this site for "stripper" and try whatever seems most highly recommended. You may have to resort to serious sanding, but that may start to sand through stained areas - requiring you to go all the way down to the same unstained bare wood - a big job.

 

[Steve Neul]

Hello,

I have this table which has some sentimental value to me, that I want to turn it into a nice refurbished table.

Where to start?
Should I sand to remove the old finish and gloss? or use chemicals?

I was considering the Festool Rotex 150, which has both options of rough and fine sanding. But what about the curves?

What to do with those cracks? Use wood filler?

Finally, and most importantly, how to tackle the joints? As you can see it was made with dowels, then some one glued it badly, and it lost its strength. Should I remove the old dowels and make others somewhere else or what? :blink:

The other joints are in place, but not rigid, should I leave them or dismantle them?

I am not a woodworker, just hobby, but extreme passion for wood and tools.

Any help would be highly appreciated.:thumbsup:

Thanks all.

I could tell you how to repair and refinish the table but I don't know what supplies you have available where you are. The best way to start is with a water wash paint and varnish remover. I use Kleen Strip. It is a semi-paste remover that will cling to vertical surfaces. That is important since you don't have tanks and pumps to keep the furniture wet with the remover. You brush on a liberal coat of remover and keep it wet applying more to spots that dry for 15 to 20 minutes. Do this somewhere where there is good ventilation but not windy. Then test a spot with a putty knife or brass brush and see if the finish wipes off. If so as quickly as you can scrape off as much of the finish with a putty knife and use the brass brush for any places that are not flat or have details a putty knife won't work. Then with a power washer that is less than 1500 psi wash the residue off and let dry. If the power washer isn't an option you could use lacquer thinner and rags to wash the residue off. The power washer would just do a better job. It would take off more of the old stain and get into cracks and crevices better. Once the furniture is dry it can be sanded and finished. If it is in reasonable condition probably sanding with 180 grit paper to start with and finishing with 220 grit would work. If there is a lot of wear you might want to start with 80 grit and work your way up to 220 grit. Sand what you can with a sander and sand the curved surfaces by hand.

If the table has cracks you don't want to fill them. A crack will open and close and push the putty out. Sometimes it's necessary to cut a cracked piece of would out and replace it with new. Sometimes you can just work glue into the crack and clamp it. You would need to post a picture before anyone could say more.

If you have loose joints I would disassemble as much of it as possible with a rubber mallet and re-glue it. If you have some joints that won't budge leave them alone. You can do more damage forcing them apart than it's worth. If some of the dowels are broken or damaged it may be necessary to put new ones it. Anyway for an adhesive be sure to use a slow set two part epoxy. Wood glue works by soaking into the pores of the wood and turning hard. On a joint that is re-glued the pores are sealed with the old glue so you are gluing glue to glue. An adhesive for non-porous materials is better.

Once the table is repaired and sanded it can be stained with an oil stain and topcoated. If you don't have the means of spraying the finish you might use a wipe on polyurethane finish. Probably the easiest finish you could use if you have the means of spraying would be a precatalyzed lacquer. It dries fast and if you don't have a really clean place to finish the fast dry helps a lot, not getting dust or bugs in the finish.

 

[Sherif]

Update Pic

Hey Fellows,

Thanks to all who responded, thanks to Steve also very much for taking the time to write this comprehensive response.

As per your requests, I have added some pics of the cracks, the dowels, and the holes of the Dowels.

We have true value and Ace store here, I think I have seen this paint stripper "kleen strip".

Steve, can you please explain a bit more about these non porous epoxies?

And should I use the epoxy inside the hole where the dowel will fit, or also the joining edges?

Thanks All

 

[Steve Neul]

Hey Fellows,

Thanks to all who responded, thanks to Steve also very much for taking the time to write this comprehensive response.

As per your requests, I have added some pics of the cracks, the dowels, and the holes of the Dowels.

We have true value and Ace store here, I think I have seen this paint stripper "kleen strip".

Steve, can you please explain a bit more about these non porous epoxies?

And should I use the epoxy inside the hole where the dowel will fit, or also the joining edges?

Thanks All

If you were to look at wood through a microscope it would look like a bunch of drinking straws bonded together into a sheet. When you use wood glue on new work the glue soaks into the ends of those straws and turns to plastic. This is how it bonds. If you were to take a non-porous material like two pieces of steel and try to glue them with wood glue it would just create a vacuum between the steel and the joint would soon fail. It wouldn't soak into the steel so it couldn't work. When you re-glue a joint it's like gluing steel, the pores of the wood are filled with the old glue so the glue can't penetrate. It's best to use an adhesive that is formulated to bond to the surface as two part epoxy is. You should use the epoxy in the dowel holes just as you would if you were using wood glue. I recommended the slow set epoxy because it's time consuming to get all the parts together and get the clamps in place. If you use some that sets in 5 minutes it's already getting thick and perhaps dry before you get everything clamped. Then there will be some that ooze to the surface that needs to be cleaned off with acetone and if it gets dry before you do that it has to be sanded off.