Hidden Treasure?

[Jim Frye]

Our daughter asked me to sand a pair of found side tables so she could paint them. The first one I started on is a small one with a magazine rack at the bottom. The top looked like had a few bad layers of shellac, but the bottom is covered with some gross yellow paint. I decided to disassemble the thing as most of the glue joints had failed. It came apart rather easily with a few hand tools. I discovered the piece is apparently made from walnut. I'll put up some pics after I attack it with the sanders. Going to try to avoid stripper as it's still too cold and rainy here to work outside.

[leehljp]

I ran into something like this about 3 - 4 years ago at a church parking lot sale for raising money for youth. A lady was going to buy a walnut baby doll bed. The seller (a grandmother my age) began describing it and who made it. That got my attention. Knowing the maker, I knew the history. The maker got that wood from my dad back in the late '60s. It was from a tree I used to play under as a kid. The buyer mentioned "painting" it white. The grandmother said: "Never paint walnut! Refinish with clear varnish of some kind".

[Jim Frye]

Here's what I'm starting with. The first one is disassembled on the assembly table. I think this one will be easy and quick. The silver one looks to be some sort of computer desk with the slide out drawer for a keyboard and the sliding shelf for a mouse. The shelf slides out to the right or the left. Not sure what's under the silver paint.

[leehljp]

I certainly don't like stripping old paint off and all the cleaning, scrapping and sanding, but it sure gives a great sense of accomplishment when finished and it looks new again! Done that a few times for LOML and my girls!

[Dedpedal]

You are the first person other than myself that I’ve seen use LOML. Great minds.

[Jim Frye]

The paint on the first table comes off pretty easily by sanding and has revealed a walnut top and soft maple lower parts. The walnut in the top is not matched well and the maple was stained/dyed to sort of look like walnut. I suspect it was originally a factory done piece and someone at some time decided the mustard yellow was a good upgrade based on the way the color was applied. I don't think it's a candidate for stain and varnish refinishing. It will take a few days to repair some splits and screw holes that are visible. When I get it back together, I'll apply a coat of Sealcoat to prep it for painting.

[Jim Frye]

I was just told the walnut and yellow table is something of an heirloom of our Daughter's Husband. It belonged to his Grandfather, so I'm glad I took it apart to rebuild it proper.

[capncarl]

I know we do what we have to do but I really hate to have to remove paint from furniture that I have dismantled because if there are any shapes or sharp edge details they are easily rounded off. Flat woods such as these not so much.

[Jim Frye]

capncarl: This one was stained/varnished & antiqued with green paint and tan glaze. It had a broken rocker and one of the back rod was broken n two. Not only stripped and bleached, but all of the detail on the stretchers and legs had to be sanded back into shape. It's maple and I dyed it back to the original walnut color and varnished.

[Jim Frye]

First table ready for paint. The table was damaged when I started on it. The magazine rack rails were doweled into the ends, but the dowels used were just a bit too large for the rails and most of the rails had split when the table was assembled. When the hide glue aged and dried out, the table became racked and wobbly. In addition , the bottom of the magazine rack was a piece of 1/8" plywood pinned to the underside of the rack. The plywood had become delaminated and no longer was part of the structure. I inserted a piece of maple in the bottom of the rack and bamboo pinned it in place. I still,haven't figured out if this one was an inexpensive factory piece or made by a hobbyist like most of us. I have to clean up the resulting mess in the shop before starting on the silver mess.

[Jim Frye]

Started on the silver thing today. No rebuild for this one just a lot of sanding. It's been spray painted, but the outside was dry brushed right after spraying to create an effect that I don't understand what it's supposed to be other than ugly.

[Jim Frye]

Imagine it loaded up with a desktop PC, monitor, keyboard, and mouse and it would seem so. The piece is solidly built and the legs are bolted on with threaded inserts and machine screws. My Daughter intends to use it as a printer stand. That should be an OK load for the table.

[LCHIEN]

Not that it isn't strong but with the slide table extended the COG will be nearly in front of the front legs with a heavy laptop on the extension. There's not a lotof mass in the main table. Making it real easy to tip forward with stuff on the extension.

[Jim Frye]

Yep, I agree. Looks like a basic side table redesigned as a computer table.

[Jim Frye]

The silver mess is a white wood (not maple, but maybe birch) that was stained cherry, topcoated with a dark varnish and then painted with the silver paint. It does not sand off easily and the finishes have not been applied evenly. Going to go through a lot of sandpaper on this one.

Update: the white wood I thought I saw on the top has turned out to be veneer over pressboard. I sanded through the veneer while trying to remove all of the varnish and paint and level the top. I think the rest of the carcass is also pressboard. Things will get tricky from here on in.

[Jim Frye]

The rest of the carcass is made from some form of LDF or MDF press board with veneer overlays. I just can't figure out what the substrate is? Here's a picture of the corner of the top where I sanded through the veneer.

[Jim Frye]

Not only was the carcass made of low grade MDF, but it was poorly made and someone tried to fix it only making it worse. The back panel is a piece of 1/8" masonite let into a 1/4" grooves, so it wasn't supporting the structure at all. I emptied two vials of CA glue into butt joins and filled the masonite grooves with glue. This solidified the upper carcass and left it square. I stripped the legs using a drum sander mounted in a hand held flex shaft driven by my drill press. All of the exposed MDF was saturated with thinned varnish until it wouldn't take anymore. This table really wasn't worth fixing and the number of man hours expended greatly exceeds its value. Now our Daughter can paint these two tables.