9
If the defect were in a location that was not subject to wear and abuse, you could fill the defect with wood putty. After it cured, you could sand it down, and finish to taste. Unfortunately, this location will get beat up further, and the wood putty would just chip off.
A better possibility is to make a "patch" out of a similar piece of wood. Trim away ...
8
Yes, shellac is a great barrier coat and wash coat, lacquer works well over it. The flake mixed with DNA is better than the hardware store canned. That being said, the area could be spot repaired with a fad via french polish and shellac without lacquer. I am assuming if it is has a shellac finish it is a vintage piece so keeping with the original finish is ...
8
Is it possible to change the handle and how?
Yes, you can replace the handle. But there's a decent chance you can repair the existing one strongly enough that the repair will last for many years if you'd prefer to do that.
New handle
This doesn't require a lathe but obviously if you want the new handle to be round then it would be the most efficient way ...
8
Since they are very old, they are most likely lacquer or shellac. As previously noted, test for shellac with DNA, lacquer with lacquer thinner. If those don't soften the finish, then it's probably a phenolic or alkyd varnish which will require stripping.
Here is a good article on refinishing by Bob Flexner.
8
The water stain on the desk looks like it could be blush in the lacquer itself rather than damage to the wood. Blushing is caused by moisture trapped in the finish. There are a number of ways to address it, but the goal is always to allow the moisture to escape. Some ideas I've read about in the past:
mild abrasive: Rubbing the affected area with toothpaste ...
7
When we stripped the paint in my house growing up we used a heat gun and paint scrapers. It was tedious but fairly effective.
6
They have been painted though and I'm looking for a method to remove the paint, and let the natural wood stand out instead.
I live in an apartment building that used to be a large furniture factory. The building is all exposed brick and heavy timber framing. If you look closely at the timbers, you can see evidence that they were painted at one point but ...
6
It certainly isn't a bad idea, depending on what you want.
You might want to consider refreshing rather than completely stripping and refinishing. Since shellac dissolves into previous coats you can often sand carefully (watch out for the risk of sanding thru a veneer!), restain if necessary and recoat.
(Actually, traditional lacquer is also often ...
6
I think your best bet would be to use dry ice blaster. It is sort of like sand blasting, but the way the dry ice works is it will destroy the paint and evaporate into CO2 before it will harm the sub-structure (meaning the wood). The information on the page says:
Dry ice blasting:
is a non-abrasive, nonflammable and nonconductive cleaning method
...
5
That looks like a "partial-wrap inset hinge". Places like Lee Valley have them.
5
The front exclusively.
The rear surface of the mouth represents part of a reference/registration surface that works in conjunction with the frog's face to support the iron assembly, and if it's in good condition and doesn't need remedial work it shouldn't be touched1.
In addition the metal is generally thinner at the front than at the back (not even ...
4
If it were my choice to make... let me put it this way: I've actually spent a little time with a handheld power planer upside-down in a jig as a "micro jointer". I've come a long way, since I now have two full-production jointers (one 1HP 6", and one 2HP 8" antique) in my shop. I'd put that jointer to use and make the best of it while you save up for one of ...
4
I can only speak generally about restoring equipment:
When in doubt, so long as nothing structurally wrong with the machine (Check for alignment, cracks, bends, etc.)
It's typically a matter of replacements/servicing bearings, belts and have the blades replaced/sharpened and then attack any rust/corrosion.
As it's belt driven, replacement of a motor could ...
4
My guess, is that using a clear finish should leave it pretty close to what you are looking for. Pick one that has a good hard finish and put several coats on to make it thicker and stronger to reduce scratches.
Maple tends to yellow into a nice honey color especially in sunlight, so after sanding it down it might look more white than what you currently ...
4
You can test the finish by applying different types of solvent in an inconspicuous location on the piece of furniture. For example, you can remove Shellac with denatured alcohol. Bob Vila's website outlines a few common solvents that work for certain finishes in an article about removing varnish.
Some types of finish, like lacquer, burn into the existing ...
4
Unfortunately there are no easy solutions to removing paint from rough wood in situ.
Methylene-chloride paint remover: Dont know how difficult that would be to remove the pain on the rough surface inside a house
Chemical strippers are in many ways the ideal way to strip paint (and varnish) from woodworker because, as odd as it might seem, they actually ...
3
Would a lacquer finish be the wrong approach?
Your basic idea here is sound; on furniture such as a coffee table that will be in regular use shellac is not a good final protective coat because of its poor water-resistance and of course its solubility in alcohol.
However lacquer may not be the best bet here for a couple of reasons. The main one is that your ...
3
I remembered a product my father made me use when working on some pressure treated framing for a gazebo. Pressure treating rarely penetrates 100%, so any cut ends or drilled holes tend to be the first point of more severe decay. he made me paint/cover any cut ends and drilled holes with a clear, smelly liquid. I believe it was called something like a 'clear ...
3
To completely remove the paint (nooks and crannys included), the wood will eventually have to be planed down. The majority could be removed with a heat gun and scraper, then planed to get the last traces off. A hand scraper could get paint out of nooks and crannys. You might consider just covering the timbers (box them in) with new wood of the type you want ...
2
Another motorized solution would be to take a "veneer cut" off the face with a bandsaw. Less punishing to your tools than using a planer would be, and bandsaw blades are less hassle to replace if it came to that.
I've just posted a related question about upcycling "pre-loved wood", though it may get shot down or broken up as too general.
2
Speaking of Hades....I've actually used a planer (not a hand plane, but a motorized one) when my blades were on their last leg. I didn't care if the plane ruined them because I was about to replace them anyway. Plane the wood, then replace the blades. Easy, easy!
2
I have also considered grinding via wire brush; sanding with a belt or orbital sander; and planing it with a hand plane.
I would certainly make an attempt with a hand-plane (after sharpening the iron). I've done this to clean up smaller pieces of painted/treated rough wood.
All of these seem like time intensive operations
That is true but I find using a ...
2
When I reinforced my carport, I added pressure-treated 2x4 bracing. The ends were cut at an angle, so I sprayed on a heavy coat of Copper-Green® Brown wood preservative on the exposed ends, and let them dry, before assembling the reinforcement.
Copper-Green Brown will turn wood brown. This is exactly what I wanted; the resulting color matches the brown ...
2
I use two ways to remove the paints:
Use a chemical for peeling of the paint. Since you do not want that we go to next step...
Use a heat gun and carefully hover over the wood (keep it at a proper distance so you don't damage the wood). Then after a bit of time use the scraper to slowly peel off the paint. Although it seems risky, its one of the fastest way ...
2
you can clean up, flatten the damage, with a sander and then glue a similar type of wood piece to it. when it is cured then reform the edge to a square appearance, you may want to mix the dust from the sanding with the glue, tightbond III to minimize the line appearance.
2
The black stuff is iron particles that have been abraded from the table saw top. To remove them from your pads, you'll have to dissolve them.
The good news is, it appears that the festool cutting compounds are water-alkane emulsions, which means that you should be able to remove the majority of the residue by simple laundering with clothes detergent. I ...
2
Intuitively I would choose to file the fore edge of the mouth, for two reasons:
The angle is not critical. The rear edge matches the bedding angle of the frog, whereas the fore edge is just perpendicular (edit: as Graphus points out in this answer, the fore edge angle may also matter).
Filing the fore edge means the frog adjustment doesn't need to change.
...
2
Given your lack of tooling I think the only reasonable way to address this is to flood the affected joints with epoxy. (Funny how many of my answers seem to be this solution lately.)
First, get some high-quality 2-part epoxy. Personally I like the West and Entropy brands, but I'm sure there are others that are just fine. You'll also need a "filler&...
2
You may have unrealistic expectations when you say "I want it to look more like it used to before all the wear-and-tear...". The best you can probably hope for with furniture with this level of use/abuse is what is sometimes called "distressed" or "rustic". That means that you make it look better but accept the defects as part ...
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