help needed with first project

**jlm2207** · 24th September 2005, 11:11 PM

I brought a second hand dining table and chairs today,in which I am hoping to bring back to life it looks like it has been sitting outside for a while and is very weathered, the varnish on it is peeling and all dirty, what I am in need of help with is I started to sand back the table today and it seemed to take forever the varnish was really thick and required a lot of sanding, I used a course sanding belt and it seemed to clog up with the varnish, I have always loved working with wood, so i am very excited about doing this, but being a mother of 5 under 5, I don't seem to have to much time to do things. I ended up finishing the table top this afternoon, it came up well- I think the table will be the easy part, but the chairs, well I dont know where to start. The seats are made of 3 pieces of timber with a 10mm gap between each piece, there also is a slight dip where your bottom goes, how am i suppose to sand it with out ruining it, is there any other way to sand them back with out using a belt sander and something a little less time consuming

**johnc** · 25th September 2005, 12:14 AM

JLM,

Firstly welcome to the forum, amongst the grumpy old blokes there are a few women woodworkers here as well. It is good to see another to add to the balance.

I would try a decent paint stripper, used with rubber gloves and steel wool. I have never been a big fan of sandpaper on furniture prefering to cause as little wear as possible in removing old finishes. It sounds like varnish, but if it happened to be shelac you would use metho instead.

John

**Skew ChiDAMN!!** · 25th September 2005, 02:27 AM

Hmmm... this post looks familar...

John has it right, but I'd try the metho first. If it doesn't work there's no harm done, then you can move onto trying strippers. If it does, beaudy! Given a choice I'd rather work with meths than stripper anyday!

**jlm2207** · 25th September 2005, 09:03 AM

thanks guys
I will give it a go today, do you know I have a husband who is a carpenter and a father in-law who is a builder and neither any of them could help me, maybe they thought if they gave advise, they may have to get in and help

**helga** · 25th September 2005, 08:35 PM

Removing the old stuff with meths if possible will help retain some of the patina. I found once you hit a part of the furniture with the sander, there's no going back, and hand sanding little rails etc would be time consuming. For round things, I use a bit of old stocking and hold either end, like polishing a shoe, with the 0000 steel wool...this may not be a very clear description, sorry.Helga

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