oak table top.

[sunnybob]

I have a modern oak dining table about 12 years old, made of many pieces with rails (?) and breadboard ends approx 5t x 3ft.
Its not fared too well and has a few places where the top finish has been chipped away. Also if you run your hand over the surface you can feel all of the grain on all of the boards.

I am thinking about refinishing this, but as a complete and absolute novice on large flat areas, will I make a pigs ear of it? or is it relatively simple to get an acceptable surface again?
Note "acceptable". This isnt a showroom piece, just normal furniture that could look better.

 

[ED65]

If it weren't for the breadboard ends I'd say this sort of thing is easy peasy Bob. Easy enough that it's within the grasp of the first-timer, as many many pictorials online are testament to. But most of those are just big flat expanses with grain running in one direction only. As soon as you throw in a situation where you have grain at right angles it can make things more difficult, depending on how you're removing the finish.

How were you planning on getting the rest of the existing finish off? I know you're not a heavy hand tool user but do you have card scrapers or a cabinet scraper? Scraping or chemical stripping are the two ways I'd prefer to do it but if you're going to sand what type of sander would you be using?

After you're down to bare wood again what are your thoughts on new finish? A plain linseed oil finish is quite durable on oak (i.e. no Danish oil, or hard wax oil or any of those, just BLO) because the wood itself is so hard, but it won't be moisture resistant worth a damn and if you have iron salts in your tap water you can get permanent dark stains on the oak very easily.

 

[sunnybob]

i have no idea how to proceed (lol).
I have a B&D electric sander shaped like a steam iron, a small electric planer, and a large sanding block. No scrapers.

I also have no idea about refinishing. It will need to be moisture resistant at the least as humidity levels here are rarely below 65%.
i have a desire to make it look presentable again, what with the marks on top and the end boards have come away slightly from the main table, just enough for the crack to be visible, but I think taking them off and repairing would be well beyond me.

I'm stuck. I really want to make it look nicer, but if I balls it up it will only make it so unsightly the missus will want to get rid of it.

 

[yetloh]

Getting it flat will be a challenge for you with the tools you have. If there is an outfit on the island that has a wide thickness sander that would be your best bet for getting the old finish off and achieving a good basis for refinishing. They might not be happy with getting the old finish off this way as it can mess up sanding belts, in which case, you could use a chemical stripper before the sanding stage. Once you have it prepared, you could oil it or I would use a polyurethane varnish which would be waterproof and very durable. My method is foolproof but a bit time consuming. Use an oil based PU and apply with a cloth with the PU diluted about with 40 % white spirit. You will need four or five thin coats, denibbing between each. For a really super silky finish, when you have finished, cut back with 400 grit wet and dry paper using white spirit as a lubricant. This will create a fine slurry which will fill the grain to some extent but not enough to look unnatural. wipe off with a dry cloth across the grain so as to not wipe the slurry out of the grain. The end result should be a lovely silky satin finish. If it's not shiny enough for you you can polish with a burnishing cream to the level of shine you want. You can also wax it but I never do because what you get from waxing is always transient, whereas getting the right sheen with the finish, it will last and just need wiping over occasionaly.

Jim

 

[MattRoberts]

I agree with Ed - a card scraper (or cabinet scraper like an 80 / 85) would be ideal given the grain directions.

 

[sunnybob]

I'm thinking this is more than I want to do.
Apart from anything else its used daily. A day or two wouldnt be a problem, but I could see me taking weeks while I correct all the mistakes I would make.
Thanks for the advice but I'm going to not mention it to the missus and hope she doesnt ask me.

 

[MattRoberts]

Won't take that long Bob! A few hours with a £10 card scraper and then pop in a few coats of varnish, and you're set!

 

[sunnybob]

Matt, dont spoil my excuses OOOPS reasons.

I will have a look out for card scrapers when I'm in the UK next week, shops here are so geared to industrial stuff that I'm sure I'd never find one.

 

[Keithie]

I'm definitely not an expert here, at all, but when stuff is for yourself I've always found there's not much downside. I've a thick (4") elm plank dining table (8'x3') and a medium (2") figured elm single slice coffee table (6'x3'). I finished them both myself..and they're perfectly ok.

I use a square velcro pad old Bosch random orbital sander to get down to 100 grade then by hand to 240 (dining table) and 2500 (yup!) for the coffee table. You can just do it by eye, its not that hard...just takes time. For the various small splits and gouges in the dining table I just filled the bigger ones with hardwood filler (and sanded) and ignored the small ones. I then waxed them with whatever wax we had (mostly sheraton but also organoil natural wax& polish, Stones furniture cream and even used some clear dubbin as we had it!) for five coats (till it stopped soaking in). Ongoing maintenance is spray wax polish (with woodsilk non-silicone spray) with the occasional (like once a year) proper waxing all over.

No doubt professionals would be appalled, they're not perfectly flat, the coffee table shines like a mirror and it took pretty much forever, the waxes are probably all wrong ...but they look ok enough.

If you want perfectly flat then I have no idea if thats possble without some serious equipment ... working outside by hand you can catch the light and see which areas to tweak!

 

[sunnybob]

Keithie, you talk my language. I am the kind of person that purists have nightmares about.
(By a bizarre co-incidence, my son is called Keith and lives in Somerset... keith, is that you?)

 

[Keithie]

lol...not me ..unless maybe you were in Bridgwater in the 60s... ?

Actually Keith is a pretty common name in Somerset ..in our vilage of 200 ish folk, 4 are called Keith!

Almost as bizarrely, my golf partner is called Bob!

 

[sunnybob]

I drove through bridgwater for the first time in 1971 just before they opened the M5 that far, so I'm in the clear (phew) All my family live in Taunton, but it gets weirder, my son is a carpenter shop fitter.

 

[MattRoberts]

It's the table not flat? You've said it has rough / raised grain, but that doesn't mean it's not flat - it just means it's not smooth.

 

[sunnybob]

Not glass flat by a long way. the grain is very obvious, Its like they didnt bother to do any sanding after assembling, just spray coated it.

The cross pieces are all edge glued and fairly seamless, the end boards run the same way as the cross pieces but those joints have come apart a little bit. the long side pieces are flat with the main body of the table.

 

[sunnybob]

I've just done some video research in card scrapers as i thought it might be my answer.

Uh Uh. No way can my poor old arthritic thumbs cope with that amount of grip and twist.
back to power tools it is.

 

[No skills]

Removed.

 

[sploo]

I've just done some video research in card scrapers as i thought it might be my answer.

Uh Uh. No way can my poor old arthritic thumbs cope with that amount of grip and twist.
back to power tools it is.

Bob - get yourself a Stanley #80 (or equivalent, e.g. http://www.toolnut.co.uk/products/plane ... No_80.html). An old one is best, but as you say, you're not after showroom quality.

Trying to sand off a finish will likely be an exercise in gummed belts/paper and frustration. You could also look into a heavier duty paint scraper (http://www.screwfix.com/p/harris-heavy- ... 7QodSHsGuA) and then finish with sanding.

On oak I like a simple oil finish such as Behandla (http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/tool ... -50070378/). Danish oil is nice too. I understand some of the Osmo finishes are even better - though I've not used them.

 

[sunnybob]

I think I could handle one of those, thanks.