![]() ![]() ![]() “It does take longer, but it’s easier on the furniture, and on the person doing the work,” he says. “Flow-over systems expose the worker to less chemicals, but the furniture is still getting saturated with more stripper than it needs,” Maxwell says.Īccording to Maxwell, stripping furniture is best done by hand. ![]() “This method is the least expensive,” Maxwell says, “but too much chemical exposure isn’t good for the wood, and can damage the veneers and glued joints.” Because of environmental regulations, many dip strippers have switched to flow-over systems, in which the chemicals are circulated through a pump and hosed onto the piece. Some pros dunk pieces in a vat of chemicals. Once the glue dried, the table was shipped to the stripping room. Next, he brushed on a thin coat of carpenter’s glue and clamped the boards together. Maxwell ran the top through his tablesaw, cleaned up the cut on his jointer and installed a few wood biscuits to reinforce the joint and straighten any minor warping. The fastest way to correct splits like these is to recut and reglue the joint. “This table had been exposed to the elements for at least a decade,” he says, “but it only takes a year or two for furniture to begin checking and warping - even if it’s under cover in an unheated garage or on a back porch.” For this project, Maxwell started by removing the split tabletop. If the piece is damaged, fix it before removing the paint. Maxwell suggests writing numbers on the parts or even taking a few “before” pictures to help with reassembly when you’re done. First, remove hardware, such as pulls, knobs, and hinges. When restoring furniture, it helps to break things down to smaller, more manageable steps. What will you save doing the work yourself? Hiring a pro to repair, strip and finish this table would cost about $450, while you can do the work over a couple of weekends for around $60. Who knows? You might find a real gem under all that gunk. But if you follow the advice of Don Maxwell, of Maxwell’s Furniture Restoration in Mountainside, New Jersey, on how to redo furniture you will get the job done safely and correctly. Chemical stripping surely ranks as one of the messiest ways to spend a weekend. Whether the piece is a family heirloom or just something you picked up at a garage sale, you can remove the paint and turn it into a usable piece of furniture. There’s probably an old dresser, chair, or table you’ve sequestered in a dark corner of your basement or attic that’s covered with cracked and blistered paint. After the stripper is brushed on, chemicals do the hard work. HIDDEN BENEATH half a dozen layers of crackled paint is a beautiful hardwood table. ![]()
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