Now I'm hooked

[leebo]

Hello,

I've always enjoyed playing with wood, but recently my wife bought an old ceder chest that had paint spilled on it and the finish was in horrid shape. We paid a whopping $5 for it, thinking to myself I'll paint it and use it as a toy chest. After I got it home and looked at it, turns out it's a Lane Ceder chest from around 1943.

So here I am....I've watched about 4 hours of the podcasts, bought a few basic supplies to refinish the chest, and gave it a go. So far so good.

Now that I've told ya how I got hooked, how about me. I'm Lee from a small town just south of Steubenville Ohio. A wife and two kids, who now are gonna find saw dust all over everything in the garage.

[PMR]

So here I am....I've watched about 4 hours of the podcasts, bought a few basic supplies to refinish the chest, and gave it a go. So far so good.

Hi Lee make sure to post some pics when ya get it done...Pat

[PaulMarcel]

Hooked? ha ha, no more disposable income for you!

Welcome and definitely post pics of that chest; sounds pretty nice. You could also post any questions here; mmmmmm smell of cedar...

[leebo]

Hooked? ha ha, no more disposable income for you!

Come on now....Said in my first post I've got a wife and two kids. Disposable income went away long long time ago. Funny thing though is this.....that's kinda what got me started on this. We've bought our house about 3 years ago, and several pieces of furniture we're using came from either the local GoodWill for dirt cheap...or picked from the trash. Can't beat dirt cheap stuff.

Here's a post of the chest the way it was once I got it in the garage. Finish had some paint on the top as well that I wiped off with some paint remover before taking this photo, but after I looked at it the shape wasn't as bad as I though.

After doing some research on the internet I found out that it was a Lane Ceder Chest from 1943. Turns out it that it was worth looking into restoring, and with the finish not as bad as I first though...off to Lowes for some sandpaper I went. After about 10 hours of sanding, and dust now all over the basement, I came up with the majority of the original finish taken off and ready to stain.

We used MinWax Red Oak stain after sanding it all the way up to 220 grit. This shot is with just the stain...no finish.

I plan on putting on three to four coats of LinSeed oil....depending on looks after the third coat. Here's a shot after the first coat.

[Lawrence Brown]

Nice! That was definitely an awesome find. And great job on the refinish. Looks like you did just enough sanding to get the old stuff off without ruining the veneer.

[leebo]

I learned to look for veneer before ya start the hard way. My first item to work on was an old bedroom set my wife had that she said was all wood. There was several layers of paint that I stripped off then went to sanding. Can't tell ya how many times I cussed when veneer started to chip away from it. I finished it, but it looks like poo. One of these days once we get a new set I plan on re-veneering the set and re-staining it. Till then we just live with it.

[PaulMarcel]

That is a fantastic garbage-to-gem story. Hey, nice chest!

And what is it with paint?! Who would say "this looks too nice, let's paint it". Actually, Charles Neil says that when he does commissions, women want things painted, men want them stained. Women want them painted because they feel they can paint it again when 'avocado green' comes back in style.