LOML has a Pennsylvania House dining room table she bought about 10 years ago. Solid cherry, nice finish, and it was not cheap.
She bought some potpourri in envelopes and laid one of them on the table. Unbeknownst to her, you are not supposed to put this stuff on furniture, and it ate through the finish.
Looks to me like it melted the finish so I am suspecting it has something like acetone or some other petroleum based product in it. Turns out she had laid an envelope of this stuff for 6 months on a sideboard I had built and finished with oil based poly and it did nothing to it so that further leads me to believe the finish on the table is probably lacquer. I didn't see it until today but she says it was somewhat sticky when she was trying to get the paper chunks out of it. The stickiness is now gone.
I am thinking I will try to refinish it hopefully without stripping it to bare wood, but I want to do it right. My thoughts are to get the rest of the paper out, lightly sand the entire top with 400 grit, and spray nitro or precat lacquer on it. I have a very good HVLP system and the space in the shop to do it, but I am looking for suggestions, thoughts, warnings etc.
Should I tackle this or should I send it to a professional finisher?
If I do tackle it, any suggestions on how to get the remainder of the paper out?
In the affected area when you look at it from an angle, you can tell there is a "difference" in the finish like it has been sanded down. If I sand the entire top and spray it, will it even out?
What type of finish should I use? I don't want to use poly. I am thinking either the lacquers I mentioned above or maybe one of Target coatings finishes. Any thoughts there?
Do I need to put a seal coat of shellac on the top before spraying with the lacquer?
Again, any and all suggestions and thoughts would be appreciated.
She bought some potpourri in envelopes and laid one of them on the table. Unbeknownst to her, you are not supposed to put this stuff on furniture, and it ate through the finish.
Looks to me like it melted the finish so I am suspecting it has something like acetone or some other petroleum based product in it. Turns out she had laid an envelope of this stuff for 6 months on a sideboard I had built and finished with oil based poly and it did nothing to it so that further leads me to believe the finish on the table is probably lacquer. I didn't see it until today but she says it was somewhat sticky when she was trying to get the paper chunks out of it. The stickiness is now gone.
I am thinking I will try to refinish it hopefully without stripping it to bare wood, but I want to do it right. My thoughts are to get the rest of the paper out, lightly sand the entire top with 400 grit, and spray nitro or precat lacquer on it. I have a very good HVLP system and the space in the shop to do it, but I am looking for suggestions, thoughts, warnings etc.
Should I tackle this or should I send it to a professional finisher?
If I do tackle it, any suggestions on how to get the remainder of the paper out?
In the affected area when you look at it from an angle, you can tell there is a "difference" in the finish like it has been sanded down. If I sand the entire top and spray it, will it even out?
What type of finish should I use? I don't want to use poly. I am thinking either the lacquers I mentioned above or maybe one of Target coatings finishes. Any thoughts there?
Do I need to put a seal coat of shellac on the top before spraying with the lacquer?
Again, any and all suggestions and thoughts would be appreciated.
