Thread: Fixing my parents old wooden table :)

G'day,

that's a lovely idea to refurbish their table !

its a harder job than you may realise though. I suggest you cut off the broken areas of particle board and attach new moulding/ edging pieces all the way around it. It may be possible to glue these on, screw them on or better yet use a biscuit joint if you can find a jointer ($).

To remove/hide the scratches/dints I would use some wood filler (bunnings), buy it in the colour you want the table to finish up at. Once you have sanded all the finish off treat it with stain (again bunnings) then varnish. Any of the clear varnishes will do the job, I suggest you apply several thin layers of varnish to build the surface up and sand back gently between coats until you are happy with the finish.

good luck with this and keep us posted as to how you are doing!

(if you are doing a rotation at Tweed Hospital, pm me as I may be able to help further)

Regards,
Cam

Unfortunately, refinishing supplies aren't cheap; I'd suggest a better use of your time/money would be to treat them to dinner at a nice restaurant. Or simply buy them a new table from Ikea.

To restain, you'll need to sand off the existing varnish - so that's maybe $10-20 in sandpaper and possibly about $80 if you buy a cheap orbital sander when your arms get tired.

Stain will cost you $20; wipe on poly to revarnish will be $25. Timber edging (assume tassie oak as it is easy to get) maybe $10, which will then need to be cut to size ($30 for a hand saw) and possibly thicknessed (a plane, $100, or possibly a router and bit, $130, goggles and ear protection maybe another $30).

Assuming that some of the veneer needs re-gluing will mean scraping off any old glue, as you can't successfully re-glue over old glue (unless it's hide glue, which I'd very much doubt).

Timber filler is another $10, and keep in mind that it will never look like actual timber - it'll just be a darker splotch when stained, unless you hand paint it to match the rest of the timber and feather the repair in.

If you really, really, really want to fix it up, I wouldn't waste any time on the drawer faces; toss 'em (salvage veneer off them for repairs to the rest of the table) and replace them with drawer fronts made from tassie oak or a nice looking plywood or something like that.

I have to agree with Splinter. Old solid timber furniture is often worth restoring but this piece is largely veneered chipboard and in very poor state -and once you put all that time and money into it then all you get at the end is a piece of chipboard furniture. There must be better ways to treat your parents.

Nonetheless, I admire the sentiment so if you must do it and you can identify the timber species (probably black walnut) and you want some veneer (free of charge) then contact me and I will probably have what you need.

Cheers
Arron

as others have said, attempting to restore that table is not worth the effort.
To do properly, is a major undertaking akin to remaking the piece.

You can show your gratitude to your parents in other ways -- like passing your exams with Ds and HDs