Need serious help refinishing a desk


  #1  
Old 10-25-02, 06:49 PM
swordams
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Exclamation Need serious help refinishing a desk

Please help me!
I recently purchased a desk from a thrisft store that I thogh was all pine. It's a wood desk with wood drawers, probably from the 70's. The drawer fronts are dovetailed, and the bottoms are secured into dado slots, and the desk is fairly weighty for pine, so I thought it was a well built desk, but it was covered with so much green paint I couldn't make out much more of the construction. I payed $45 for it (t was the cheapest desk for sale at any thrift shop in the city). My plan was to strip it and stain it with Minwax bombay mahogany polyshade.

I took the desk home and prepared to strip it. I bought $40 worth of refinishing supplies and began to apply the chemical stripper. However, I soon realized that it would take a lot more than one bottle of stripper. I ended up using 4 bottles of stripper at nearly $8 each. So now I've spent over $100 and three days on this desk. However, when I started scraping the paint off, I noticed a few alarming things.

I had assumed that since the desk was solid wood (rather than particle board) it would nt be veneered. I soon discovered that the desk was in fact veneered nd stained. the veneer looks nice (bookmatched drawer fronts and all), but it is fairly damaged. Also, the sides of the desk are thin veneered pine-board. So now I don't know what to do with it. Should I (Can I) remove the stain? Should I remove the veneer? How? If I remove the veneer, will I be able to remove the glue and stain the desk? I don't ant to throw away a desk I've already spent to much time and money on, but I also do not want to spend any more money. What do I do?!?

Thanks,
Adam
 
  #2  
Old 10-27-02, 05:17 AM
C
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The stripper will remove most of the stain. Any left can be removed with wood bleach or a reapplication of stripper. Considering the damage to the veneered fronts, it seems apparent why it was painted.

Removing the veneer will leave you with a substrate that will not necessarily be attractive; and will likely have to be painted for any pleasing result.

Sometimes, stripping and refinishing furniture produces unexpected results.
 
 

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