MidMadModMike Posted September 3, 2018 Report Share Posted September 3, 2018 Hello all and thanks in advance for review and advice. Last time I used this board I was restoring an old Hooker floating desk, my first project. It came out very nice thanks to the solid advice found here. Now I'm onto cleaning up a Young Manufacturing Bedroom set. It's pretty cool if you like the Mid Century Modern lines. I need to clean the tops up on three dressers and night stand. I haven't been able to date it yet, but suspect 60's? If I come across a date code I'll post. The tops appears similar to my Hooker, a walnut veneer. This time I'm asking before I get the sander out! Attached are pictures of the night stand (starting small) and some close ups of the top. I cleaning it up with some mild soap, and dried/buffed it quickly. You could really feel the damage as you run your hand across it. Looked like a combination of spills and water log. I then hit the rough spots with some 000 steel wool and it smoothed out nicely. Cleaned it all up with denatured alcohol and took the pics. Also had to spend a good while scraping out a bad patch to the corner. Looked like plastic. It actually looks better than when I started, but I know there's beauty under there! I read a lot about "short cuts" like Howards Restore, etc,. I could try this route, but I'm thinking the only way I'm ever going to get it to look great is to sand down the top and side strips, and do like I did with the Hooker... get it to bare wood and get out the ARS! The solid sides and fronts are in really nice shape. A few dings but easily fixable. Its the same for all the pieces. Looking for thoughts on two items. 1. Do I forget the short cuts and start on Sanding? Should I try some short cuts or is that just going to make it harder if I have to sand down later? 2. To repair the broken/chipped corner. What epoxy products work best? ProBond Filler, DAP Plastic Wood, Durahms, JB Weld KwikWood, something else??? Or am I kidding myself and I should start learning to patch veneer? Thanks again and HAPPY LABOR DAY! Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted September 4, 2018 Report Share Posted September 4, 2018 Veneer patching will always look better. Find some junk furniture to practice on before you touch your bedroom set. Then start on the least visible areas. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AceHoleInOne Posted September 5, 2018 Report Share Posted September 5, 2018 It looks like an amber shellac is on the piece and dry from sun damage. Chemical strip and recoat with amber shellac. As to the damaged edge banding -- can you remove some from the back top that will be against the wall and use to replace the damage? Or maybe replace the top with say a walnut or apply a solid wood edge moulding around the entire top? -Ace- 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted September 5, 2018 Report Share Posted September 5, 2018 Any chance you could just replace the top? The rest of the cabinet appears to be in really good shape. I think you may be going down a rabbit hole trying to fix that but that opinion comes from a guy who hates refinishing anything so take it with a grain of salt LOL 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidMadModMike Posted September 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2018 Thanks all for the comments! On 9/3/2018 at 8:38 PM, wdwerker said: Veneer patching will always look better. Find some junk furniture to practice on before you touch your bedroom set. Then start on the least visible areas. I'm not sure I am ready for this, but I agree it will look better! I may try on some "junk" and see how it works out. Thank you! On 9/5/2018 at 9:54 AM, AceHoleInOne said: It looks like an amber shellac is on the piece and dry from sun damage. Chemical strip and recoat with amber shellac. As to the damaged edge banding -- can you remove some from the back top that will be against the wall and use to replace the damage? Or maybe replace the top with say a walnut or apply a solid wood edge moulding around the entire top? -Ace- Thanks Ace! I think it is amber shellac as well. I'm a little worried about the chemical strip, but it just that I haven't used it before. I will check the back side today and see if can loosen some of the edging from there. I also like a solid top idea. I have 4 pieces though and I'm not sure I'm that invested in this set yet. On 9/5/2018 at 1:16 PM, pkinneb said: Any chance you could just replace the top? The rest of the cabinet appears to be in really good shape. I think you may be going down a rabbit hole trying to fix that but that opinion comes from a guy who hates refinishing anything so take it with a grain of salt LOL 2 votes to replace it all. The rest of all the parts is in great shape! I will post some picture of the whole set. For $200 I couldn't say no! I am the guy that typically falls fast and hard down the rabbit hole. All these considered, I am going to try a sample of sanding down the small top tonight. The last piece I did above turned out wonderful and still looks good today. However... that was one desk. The triple dresser and the two piece tall boy would be LOTS of sanding. More to come! I may have to cut my teeth on a chemical strip as well. I read to use Denatured alcohol, but that seems like it would take forever! Thanks again I will keep it updated... although my ambition is always larger than reality! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted September 6, 2018 Report Share Posted September 6, 2018 You might be able to find some wide iron on wood edgebanding instead of using veneer. Wiping shellac with alcohol then scraping off the softened finish with a card scraper can work quite well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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