Posted by Jennifer on Monday, May 24, 2010,
Using Dowels A dowel is a small cylindrical piece of wood used for making wood repairs. When gluing together a chair rung or foot, or any other two pieces of wood for that matter a dowel is needed. Why is a dowel needed? Most structural wood repairs involving small pieces of wood need more than just wood glue or epoxy. If the glued area is load bearing like a chair, simply gluing the piece and clamping it will result in the same break many times over. Yes there are industrial strength epo... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jennifer on Tuesday, March 23, 2010,
Why buy new Furniture? Over the years, furniture comes and goes from your home. When you want to add new pieces to your decor, why not think about buying used? New furniture often is made from particle board or mulit-lamenated wood. These pieces may look like great bargains at your local furniture stores but many times are not. Most new furniture can never be refinished. Sometimes, it looks so real it's hard for most professionals to recognize that it isn't. While the pieces may serve a ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jennifer on Monday, February 22, 2010,
Fixing Dents When refinishing, often you may run across a few dents. The following procedure works well in most cases. Please note that this process should be used on the raw piece of wood only. Do not attempt this on a finished piece as you will most certainly cause damage to the finish. 1. Apply a few drops of distilled water to each dent. 2. Let the water soak in until it dries. 3. In most cases, this will cause the dent to swell back out to normal. If this process doesn't work, repeat it ag... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jennifer on Wednesday, February 17, 2010,
Stripping Furniture- Good Tip When stripping a piece of furniture, often one encounters difficult to scrape spots. These areas are often carved or are part of the piece that are hard to reach such a a chair spindle. After applying stripper to the location you wish to strip wait a good ten to fifteen minutes and then throw some old saw dust on there. Get yourself a good wire bristle brush that can really take a beating over time and brush of the stripper. The saw dust binds with the stripper... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jennifer on Tuesday, February 2, 2010,
Touch up Markers Everyone has seen them. Many have used them. Do they really work? That answer is not too complicated. They do work when used on areas of your furniture that are less noticeable. They work great on chair legs, table bases and most other vertical surfaces. When I use the word vertical, I typically mean any area that is not a top surface such as a desktop. What happens when a touch up marker is used on a top surface is normally a very muddy eye sore. Natural room light te... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jennifer on Monday, September 7, 2009,
Staining Woes Putting a stain on wood is often a learning experience for the average person. Many of you have probably seen a popular stain comercial or two that show someone streaking a beautiful stain across a piece of wood. The piece all of a sudden is complete with a finish and theres no need to do anything else. But what really happens when you just put a stain on a piece of furniture? 10 times out of 10, the stain will go on as you wish for it to appear as a completed piece but then ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jennifer on Wednesday, August 12, 2009,
Furniture Stripping
Furniture stripping is always a messy process. I like to start by removing all hardware on the piece. This includes knobs, pulls, hinges, glass etc. By doing this you save time having to clean all the dirty pieces with stripped finish in them. You also run the risk of ruining certain hardware by not removing it.
Next, I try to find the right stripper. Metholene Chloride(MC) is a sure way to strip most pieces. However, in some areas it is not sold. It is highly flamm... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jennifer on Friday, June 26, 2009,
Types of Colors/Stains for Finishing Wood There are a few different varieties for putting a finish/stain on wood. I'll narrow these to four basic groups. Dark Stains, Light Stains, Clear Coats, and Painted. Dark stains are great for enhancing a distinctive grain pattern in the wood. Using a dark stain will give rich, formal looks to soft woods. Dark stains can also simulate the appearance of a finer hardwood on your more inexpensive woods such as Poplar, Pine, and Basswood. Dark stains in ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jennifer on Friday, June 12, 2009,
Removing Stripped Screws They are different types of screw extractor bits that you can buy in many hardware stores. Sometimes you don't need to use one of these bits. Often, I place a screwdriver into the stripped slot. I give the top of the driver a couple good raps with a hammer to lodge it in the screw. By doing this you can get the leverage you need to turn the screw out. If you do have to use a screw extractor bit heres how..... Drill a very small pilot hole into the screw and then u... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jennifer on Tuesday, June 2, 2009,
How to Paint Wood Whatever you are painting is going to have to be prepped. If the piece is already painted, it may not have to be stripped. But if the finish is badly damaged and cracking, it is a good idea to strip and prep the piece from square one. After stripping your piece you must finish sand it. This means getting the piece sanded enough to where a good couple coats of paint will build a decent finish. If during the stripping process you used 60- 80 or even 100- 150 grit sandpaper... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jennifer on Tuesday, May 19, 2009,
Regluing Chairs
When you have a chair that is loose and wobbly, it's probably time to have it reglued. This can be a good or bad process for you depending on the steps you take. Simply stuffing some gorilla or other wood type glue into the broken joints will not work. All loose joints need to be broken free and cleaned of old glue. I like to use a towell and a rubber mallet. I start by labeling all joints of the chair with letters and numbers(I just write the label on some laquor tape and... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jennifer on Monday, May 11, 2009,
When dusting furniture, never use a product that contains silicone waxes. Silicone additives create a secondary finish on top of the factory finish the piece already has. The wax combines with household dust and dirt and dulls the appearance of the piece. With tables, this is how many water rings are created. The moisture gets between the factory finish and the wax finish you are creating with dusting products. Keep in mind, I'm not saying wax products are bad. (some pieces of furniture ... Continue reading ...
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