Master Woodworking and Furniture Repair

  This Blog and a Google search introduced me to the lady who owns this table.  It's basically a large round slab of rough cut pine.  The original finish was pretty much worn off, so my task is to refinish and restore the table.  Also, part of the task involves getting a stain color that picks up some of the color in the countertop.     Here's closer look at the grain and surface. I have spared you pictures of the sanding process, but suffice it to say that sanding soft pine is not a particularly fast process.  The paper loads up quickly, and before it does, you have to be careful not to gouge the wood. I burned a lot of paper getting this surface prepped.   The stain I chose was General Finish's Salem.  However, I adjusted the original stain color with dyes to get it right.   Here's the first layer of polyurethane.  I don't really like working with poly, but this will be a well-used kitche...

A close friend had this mahogany table in his basement that he'd picked up at a garage or barn sale or something.  It was a unique piece with some really interesting millwork and the top was really neat.  It rotates to the drop position.  The problem was the thing had been painted with green enamel at some point.  My friend had gotten it dipped with the intent of refinishing it himself, but never got around to it.  Unfortunately, the dipping loosened all of the joints and left a lot of green paint residue in the nooks and crannies.  It took a lot of patience to clean all that out, but the results were worth it.   The Finished Product  Unfortunately, I didn't get any good BEFORE pictures.  Suffice it to say the whole table looked like the closeup above.  I finished it with tung oil and good hand-rubbing. 

Nice mid-century cherry coffee table with plenty of good use and wear.  This one is going to be a pleasure and a challenge Here's a top view of the Coffee table.  The closeups below give a better feel for the degree of damage. The paired end tables were identical in style and wear.  The degree of damage is about the same as the coffee table. Well, time to disassemble, strip, sand, fill, sand, repair, sand, sand and then sand.  The Manufacturer's Tag on the drawer of the end tables.  An end table early on in the surface prep stage after disassembly. More parts  Here's the coffee table top with the old finish off and beginning surface prep.    These are the apron parts from the coffee table.  The table top ready for stain.  Here's the finish before I start polishing. You can see the uneven varnish that I need to level and polish in this shot  The finished coffee table    ...

This started out as a repair job for some damage caused by a local cleaning service.  There were a number of scratches and scuffs caused by a poorly managed vacuum cleaner hose, but the owner wanted the whole piece resurfaced, so be it.  I began with an overall wet sanding using 3000 grit, just to determine what I had to deal with.  Once the surface was roughed and cleaned, I started analyzing the damage.  There were literally hundreds of small scratches.  Even if I had the time to fill each of these individually, it would have looked terrible with all of those tiny patches. The pieces on either side illustrate the type of damage I had to work with.  Differences in tone have to do with lighting.  The coloring was consistent.  I was able to use a light pecan stain to repair the scratches that actually exposed the wood below the finish.  The rest I filled with several coats of varnish and then sanded them flat and buffed them to smooth...

A friend plays a lot of air hockey, so I thought it would be cool for him to have a custom air hockey hammer (that's what they call the thing you hit the puck with, I thought it was a paddle.  Live and learn, eh?) Like any turning project this started with selecting the stock, so I picked through my scrap pile and found a bunch of old chunks of black walnut.  I squared them up and sanded the faces flat (too small to put through the planer).  Then I glued and clamped the stock . . . The next day I squared up the stock and cut it into an octagon for turning on the bandsaw. I love turning wood!!! Here's the stock after coming off the lathe Now the first coat of varnish Then I customized it with  a stylized "J" and added multiple coats of varnish to protect the wood from the repeated impact of air hockey. Nothing left to do, but put some felt on the bottom and take it to the table!

The work in progress dining room set is done and delivered. 

The Vanity in Place Remeber the vanity I was rebuilding a while back.  Well here it is with the plumbing attached.