Thread: Help - I stuffed up!

What varnish did you use?

John,

I'm assuming that as you used a Turps based varnish that it was an Oil Based Polyurethane ....

I'd be inclined to strip the varnish off. Unfortunately, you run the risk of the stripper also removing the Shellac and Proof Tint - but at least you should be able to re-do them fairly easily if necessary.

The tripper that I've found to be easier to use, less toxic, and more forgiving, are the Soy based strippers. It is a chemical derived from processing Soy Beans. It works slowly. On Cabothane Water Based Poly Urethane, the soy based stripper started to soften the surface of the PolyU after about 30 minutes. I had a similar mottled surface on a fireplace mantle, caused in my case by SWMBO spraying some fly spray in the visinity of the wet PolyU . With the Soy Stripper, I was able to remove the failed PolyU, and re-finish OK.

There are two brands of Soy Stripper available in Australia that I'm aware of. Wood Craft Supplies stock their own brand Soy-Gel. A company called "Let's Clean" also sell a soy based stripper. My local independant hardware store ordered in the Let's Clean Soy-Gel, and it worked OK, but there was some discolourisation of the wood that needed to be sanded off after stripping. I've since found out that the Lets Clean product is focused on pain stripping rather than varnish stripping. I recently had a chance to help a friend use some of the Wood Craft Supplies Soy Stripper, which I think worked a bit better when it comes to stripping and re-varnishing furniture, as it did not discolour the wood.

RoyG

Hello - and thank you both for your replies.

I used British Paints Oil Based Clear Varnish.

Stripping looks like it might be the way to go. Just read the blurb on Wood Craft Supplies stock their own brand Soy-Gel and it explicitly says it'll get to the substrate-primer interface. So that'll kill the shellac - but maybe leave me with the tint intact...

All other ideas welcome.

John

Given that the top coat is polyurethane I think that you're stuck with a complete refinish. Anything strong enough to get the PU off is likely going to remove all of the finish.
Further I doubt their claim ",,,reaches the substraight..." because "substraight" is not a word, substrate is the correct spelling. You've got to be careful of companies that hire people who can't spell to write advertisements.

Just go for a complete refinish. Digger's brand paint stripper is the good stuff (methylene chloride), a $14 tin should do it for you. Don't get any on bare skin, wear eye protection, use a very cheap natural bristle brush (can curl/rot/dissolve some artificial bristles) and it'll have done its work in about 15 minutes.

all of the above and after applying cover with cling wrap film to stop evaporation . This helps with both the fumes and penetration cling film sees unaffected
Good luck
John