Newsletter
June 21 2003

Burlap to clean spindles

Inexpensive sprayer

The inexpensive sprayer worked wonders on the patio fence. The sprayer that I mentioned in Newsletter May 10 2003 is a garden sprayer purchased from Walmart for $4.27, but I'm sure any sprayer of the type will do the job. It's the type of sprayer that you put the liquid in the canister, then put the lid back on and pump a little built in pump several times to build pressure, then pull the trigger and the stuff comes out.

The sprayer that I've shown has a nozzle adjustment from a stream to a fine spray. I used a medium spray because the logs were very dry and were absorbing stain like they thought it was free, so I applied it heavy rather than using two coats. If the logs were less absorbent I would have used a finer spray and would have sprayed two coats to avoid running of the stain.

The fence was easy to prepare as it had only been stained before, so there wasn't anything to chip or flake and I just had to sweep dirt and spiderwebs off with a broom. It had faded unevenly from water and weather and many years of neglect.

If your project has a substance that is flaking you'll need to wire brush or at least use a very stiff bristle scrub brush to clean it (Rough work only like fences, you shouldn't use stiff bristle brushes on your outdoor furniture, treat it the same as indoor furniture). If there is an equipment rental business near you they may have a power washer, which will work wonders for cleaning fences and patio furniture that have an old finish flaking. This is one time that you can treat outdoor furniture different than indoor. Be sure to let the project dry completely before using stain or paint.

This opens new vistas for anyone who has some rough spraying to do and doesn't want the expense of spray equipment. I wouldn't try to spray a nice lacquer finish with one of these sprayers, but staining anything is fair game. Staining a dining room set with several chairs can be a time consuming chore using a brush or wiping stain on with a cloth, but using a sprayer can cut the time considerably. Excess stain needs to be wiped anyway, so spray away.

I haven't tried spraying paint with the sprayer, but if paint was thinned just enough to make it through the nozzle with the fine spray it should work ok for your outside projects. Be careful thinning water based paints and don't thin too much, some of them don't like being thinned at all and will object by giving poor coverage and by running badly.

The cost of the sprayer and a little bit of paint would make it worthwhile to experiment if you would like to save some time.

In the before picture you can see that one of the peeled logs in the fence has been stained. That log took about 15 minutes to stain with a brush. There are 60 logs to stain, which adds up to about 15 hours of work staining with a brush. Now for the really good part. Instead of 15 hours of stain brushing time it took 40 minutes to stain the entire fence with the sprayer.

This was an experiment to help those who don't have a compressor and all the trimmings, but I think for projects like the fence I'll use a garden spray bottle. They probably won't last for more than a project or two before the chemicals gum up their works, but the bottle doesn't cost much more than the stuff to clean it, so it won't be painful to throw it away.

Quick tip

Another good tool for stripping turned spindles is jute twine. Work the twine back an forth, like you're shining shoes, in the tight turnings.

Veneer on cedar chest.

email question . . . . .

I have inherited a cedar chest that appears to be quiet old. On the outside however, is a blond-wood veneer. This topping is quite thick and is in good shape all but the edges. I need to know if there is a way I can remove the veneer so that the cedar shows outside as beautiful as the inside.

reply . . . . .

Probably not. If the cedar chest is old it could have some collectible or antique value the way it is, but if you try to remove the thick veneer you could end up with a pile of wood pieces.

Some times in older cedar chests there was a thicker outer shell with a thinner cedar layer. Other times the cedar was thicker with a veneer or more thick layer than veneer, but thinner than average boards, on the outside.

Modern day cedar chests, even the more expensive and well known brands are particle board with a cedar veneer on the inside and another wood species veneer on the outside.

Some times with thicker cedar the cedar boards were perfect on one side, but flawed on the other. The flawed side was put to the outside, since it would be covered with veneer, or other wood of some type and the flaws were filled and sanded to make a smooth surface. You could get an unpleasant surprise if you did remove the veneer.

If the wood under the veneer did have a nice appearance you could still have a problem putting a finish on it as cedar is pretty soft and the glue may have gone fairly deep into the pores in places sealing it, so a stain would be blotchy and just a clear finish could be shinier in places than it would be in others.

There are a couple of things you can do to change the appearance. You should clean first whatever you do. There is a good cleaner on our Clean and Wax catalog page. Then you could strip and refinish the chest, using a stain and clear finish. It's also possible that you could use Restor-a-Finish from our Refinishing supplies catalog page to change the color through the existing finish.

Reveneering is another choice. It actually would be a lot easier to apply new veneer than it would be to remove the old veneer. There is a pressure sensitive veneer on our Veneer catalog page that's as easy to apply as shelf paper. It's sort of peel and stick wood.

There isn't any cedar in the pressure sensitive, but the same page has some spanish cedar. The spanish cedar is paper backed, which makes it a lot easier to use than regular veneer, but you will have to apply it with contact cement. It doesn't make it difficult to do, just another step and the contact cement is extremely stinky. You need lots of ventilation.

If you'd like more cedar smell from the inside of your cedar chest sand it lightly with 220 grit sandpaper and it will break open new pores and release more aromatic oils. Don't use any kind of sealers or oils, other than aromatic cedar oils on the inside.

Wicker furniture leg bindings

email question . . . . .

I'm trying to determine what material I need to repair a wicker tropical chair. The (I was told they are called peelings) that hold the joints together have rotted (they were originally leather) and I want to redo them with bamboo.

I got some material in Honolulu, but now it is unavailable.  It came in small bundles, about 4 feet long.  End view is flat on one side and curved on the other and is approx. 7mm wide.
 
Do you have such a product?
 
Thanks

reply . . . . .

It sounds like it could be flat oval reed.  Take a look at our Wicker catalog page. There is a handy dandy metric/inch conversion tool on the page.  Some reed is shown as mm and some as inch. 

The strands are generally random length, but quite a bit more than four feet, which makes it a lot better and easier to bind with only two ends to contend with.

Regular strand cane material shown at the above link, is quite often used too.

It sounds like you've done this before, but if you haven't it's pretty easy to do. 

Soak the reed or cane in warm water for a few minutes to make it supple and bendable.  Put a small amount of glue on an inch or two of the end of a strand and place it on the leg parallel to the leg, then start wrapping around, overlapping the parallel strand.  That will hold the starting end in place.  When you get to the end put some glue on the end of the strand and work it under the wrapped portion.  The end piece can be kind of tricky to work in and keep the wrapping tight, but with some patience it can be done.  Put some masking tape or something similar on the tucked in end to hold it in place until the glue dries.

Quick tip

If a wood to wood drawer slide has swelled to the point that soap or paraffin won't make it slide easy staple a strip of 180 grit sandpaper to the side of the drawer where it's sticking and work it back and forth. It may be difficult at first and you may only make an inch or two at a time, but keep working it and soon you'll have a nice sliding drawer. You may have to replace the sandpaper a few times. Don't forget to remove the sandpaper when the drawer fits good, otherwise it'll keep sanding and make the drawer too loose.

Resin chair care

We have a new page on the web site with information about Outdoor resin chair care. Those are the plastic chairs that make you hold your breath when you squirm around in them, because they seem awfully wiggly, but they seem to hold up very well.

We've had 10 of them for four years and only one has broken. It just happened that I was sitting in it at the time and it made a pretty loud crack for something so light weight, but it was enough to have all of my flailable parts flailing in the air.

It was just a small break in the back. The chair should have been thrown away, but I always have to figure that I ought to be able to fix it. The chair always sits way back so friends won't sit in it, but it seems that I end up with it regularly and when you hunker down in it the break spreads, then grabs a bit of shirt and a hunk of hide and there you are in the death grip of a chair getting even with you, while you're sitting at a wierd angle.

It gets harrowing. I think I'll get rid of it the next time the chairs are on sale.

Back to what we're here for, the chairs have never been deep cleaned to their orignal glory, but there have been so many requests for information about care of resin furniture that I did some experimenting and wrote a web page about the best procedure I found to make them nice looking again.

There are before and after pictures and pictures of the products I used.

My original intent was to put the information in the newsletter, but I wanted to have the pictures too and with the fence and sprayer pictures already in the newsletter I was afraid it might make the newsletter too bulky and slow down some email clients, so anyone interested can take a pleasant journey to the web page.

Quick Tip

It's a good idea to check your clothes dryer vent hose at least once a year. The plastic on the outside of the vent is pretty thin and can rupture from age with all of the heating and cooling or from moving the dryer. A very small split can let a lot of moisture into the house, which can be pretty hard on furniture joints. copyright © 1998-2003 refinishfurniture.com

Various information answers to email questions

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