My first refinish project

[Andrew Pritchard]

In our part of Canada we have Spring Clean Out, where we can chuck our pretty much anything we want. This often includes old furniture, typically items that have mass produced drawers that inevitably fall apart. I was driving home from work at 2am and saw this chest of drawers by the side of the road. I picked it up figuring it was a cheap pine unit someone was throwing out as the drawers had fallen apart, and a child had drawn on it with a biro and some paint. But I figured it would make a good change table for my kids so I put it in the back of the car and left it there for a couple of days.

When I finally got round to cleaning it up and sanding off the varnish I discovered the carcass and drawer fronts were made of maple - not pine as I'd thought. The finish was IMHO poorly done because you couldn't really see the grain at all - it was very flat. So I've used shellac and satin finish polyurethane. The shellac really made the grain pop. I ended up using poly as the top coat because I don't like the way the wood oranges with age so much. I've also put a coat of black metal paint on the hardware. The previous gold paint was very chipped.

As you can see from the photos the bottom drawer still isn't put back on yet. I had to replace the drawer slides, but I'm still not happy with the drawers - they're very sloppy in the carcass. When I get time (which isn't going to be soon with a new baby and a 15 month old in the house!) I'm going to build some new boxes out of 3/4" ply and then attach the maple fronts to them.

As an added bonus, the change pad I picked up is the same size as the top. Very convenient!

Things that went well and I learned as I went along

1) As you can see the grain came out beautifully

2) It's much easier to do round over with a router table when you have small pieces.

3) Sanding between coats of poly is not optional. I can see brush marks in the poly, though it doesn't show up on the photos. Fortunately you can only see them if you know what to look for, at an oblique angle under strong light. Next time I might try wiping it on rather than using brushes.

4) I should take more time with my RO sander to take off the varnish and not rely so much on my belt sander. The belt sander was great for getting off the bulk of the varnish, but left some score marks I had trouble getting out with the RO sander. There were a couple of low spots in the wood which I put the belt into, but which I should have relied on the RO sander for.

5) The edges were already rounded over. The RO sander was very good at cleaning them off. Next time, trust the RO sander and don't waste time trying to do it with a router.

All in all, I'm pleased with the outcome for a first try.

[PaulMarcel]

Really nice trash-to-treasure restoration. Well done. I don't have a belt sander because coupled with my impatience, I'd dish everything. Can't see the dish do no problema. Spring Clean Out is a great idea. I have a pile in my living room waiting a donation truck next week.

[duckkisser]

i knew a guy who lived in a college town and every spring he rented a trailer drove around picking up furniture, and restoreing it for the rest of the year and sold them. he made good money that way. me im more inclined to pull a furniture apart so that i can reuse the wood in something else. like i striped down a baby cage and took the wood and glued it up into some turning stock.

[Andrew Pritchard]

The trouble I've seen this year is a LOT of the furniture is cheap particle board which has disintegrated. On the plus side, if gave me a new 1 1/2" workbench top. I also picked up a toddler bed for my 15 month old. A few things were missing: a few bolts, and the slides for the drop down side and the mattress and bottom. Replaced the bolts for few cents, screwed the drop down side in place (I never liked drop sides anyway), and we already had the mattress and bottom from another toddler bed.

[rmac]

Next time I might try wiping it on rather than using brushes.

You will love this method. Make a mixture of half polyurethane and half paint thinner and go to town. It takes more coats because the stuff goes on so thin, but it's really easy to get excellent results.

For lots of tips and tricks, download Marc's video on the subject. It helped me a lot.

-- Russ

[Derwood]

Looks great. The wiping method is great and my favorite. But always have some foam brushes around for corner mop/ touch ups and nooks and crannies.

[duckkisser]

You will love this method. Make a mixture of half polyurethane and half paint thinner and go to town. It takes more coats because the stuff goes on so thin, but it's really easy to get excellent results.

For lots of tips and tricks, download Marc's video on the subject. It helped me a lot.

-- Russ

Looks great. The wiping method is great and my favorite. But always have some foam brushes around for corner mop/ touch ups and nooks and crannies.

here is a trick i picked up instead of buying foam brushes go to a fabric/hoby store and buy high density foam. then you can use a hack saw and cut squares off of a block of the foam to the size that you want to use. for 5-10 dollers you can get like 300 brushes. we use so many in the classroom i just use my band saw and cut down a 20-30 in a few min.

there is a min wax wip on poly that i like. i let the kids use it over regular poly because its realy forgiving. it comes thined down and lets the kids coat it on without worying as much about driping and runs. like rmac said it takes more coats but it does not take as much hassle becuase they can blend in easer.