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Refinishing an old cedar chest. My process to this point has worked like: Apply gel kleen strip Wait Scrape Add mineral spirits Scrub w stripping pad Let it dry After 3 rounds of that I’ve scraped a ton of gross rear end varnish off but there’s still a fine, dark layer of ??? on the wood. It doesn’t scrape up but it does immediately gum up a sanding disk and spreads a film of itself + dust over the surface if I try to sand through it. Should I be trying another solvent or approach? Edit- How it started:  How it looks now: 
the yeti fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Feb 26, 2024 |
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Feb 26, 2024 20:17
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 15:25 |
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Leperflesh posted:Kaiser is a finish-whisperer and might have better advice, but there's a chance that's shellac and if so, see if alcohol dissolves it. Denatured alcohol is best if you can get it, but it's illegal here in california; rubbing alcohol of the highest concentration you can lay hands on is also OK. I have some 91% isopropyl, I’ll give that a check when work gives me a break
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Feb 26, 2024 21:17
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Scrub it down really well with with lacquer thinner, use a fuckton of rags to wipe the lacquer thinner + goop off. Big box lacquer thinner is some nasty stinky garbage that's mostly acetone but it has some other solvents in it that will help too. VM&P Naphtha is good too, it's like mineral spirits but cleaner and hotter and better in every way. Use both to be sure! Naphtha first, lacquer thinner second. You have to use a clean part of the rag constantly so you are actually removing the goop and not just spreading it around. Then sand it lightly. It will probably still clog the paper pretty quickly, but hopefully not as badly. I haven't used Kleen Strip, but most strippers have some sort of wax or something in them that keeps the solvents from evaporating so quickly and that leaves a nasty residue that's really hard to eliminate completely, but also doesn't generally affect whatever you refinish with if you sand it pretty good with 150. Iso 91% actually rubbed off a bunch of stains ranging from tobacco to piss colored on the paper towels but not nearly all of it, so I’ll give real lacquer thinner a shot. The kleen strip I have is mostly methyl carbamate iirc if that’s relevant. Since I have to do the rest of the goddamn trunk, should I just start with lacquer thinner for the rest of it? Out of curiosity from all this can you tell what kind of material it’s actually finished with? the yeti fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Feb 27, 2024 |
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Feb 27, 2024 00:26
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Cedar chapter 2: Stripped, sanded with 120, looks way better (right  ) The end grain is super dark, is that just how it be now from absorbing varnish or should I give it more sanding attention? I don’t mind much either way I’m just not sure what I’m looking at. 
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Mar 2, 2024 00:08
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Thanks! I knew end grain sucks up more stuff so I think I’m just gonna go with it as long as it won’t cause problems later. I’m gonna clean up a few spots and hit it with 220 and call that sanded I think, then I’ll be back to ask about finishes after I’ve read up on that. then having learned on the lid I get to do the rest of the loving thing, polish the hardware, etc 
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Mar 2, 2024 00:17
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Okay well the hyperfocus is kicking my rear end tonight so I am thinking about cedar finishes anyway. The stuff I'm reading seems to suggest that some finishes don't take to aromatic cedar very well because of the oil in the wood, and I see people suggesting dewaxed shellac first as a sealer and some oil based finish on top of that. I don't have strong opinions yet about how I want it to look other than avoiding mega gloss and anything that will darken over time if possible. With this stripped-down-to-varnish photos as a reference: I think "several shades lighter and natural cedar palette instead of Brown" is in the neighborhood of what I want. Having a time finding photos to go off as examples since so much of what's out there is decking, even if I search for 'aromatic cedar' 
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Mar 2, 2024 04:07
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Goons I very much underestimated the tenacity of that goddamn varnish when I started this project but I’m making ok progress.  Having a better feel for the wood I think I just haven’t to this point been scraping nearly enough to avoid clogging a bunch of sanding disks. I can’t work this out though, this is what I’m scraping off and I can’t tell if it’s varnish, wood, or both. It seems like it goes from curlies and ribbons to fine dust as more comes off and that’s how I’ve been judging it ready to sand. 
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Mar 28, 2024 01:16
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 15:25 |
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ReelBigLizard posted:Old BLO or similar oil finish maybe? I don’t know how to tell but that crossed my mind, the stuff sure seems to be part of the outer surface of wood rather than sitting on it.
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Mar 28, 2024 21:25
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