Kitchen Accessories 2

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July 19, 2003

Well, it's been an eventful two weeks since the last newsletter. The water pump went out on the car between our town and the next one while we were taking our granddaughter and a neighbor girl to the museum, a power surge addled the brain of my new cable modem (it's protected with a surge protector now), another power surge knocked out the air conditioner, the temperature has been just under to just over 100 degrees F. lately and I had some minor surgery, but now it's time for the fun stuff.

Handy refinishing tools

A scraper is one of the most useful tools when you're refinishing furniture.

If you have a metal scraper be sure the corners are rounded as squared corners can make a bad gouge very easily.

We used mainly rounded corner plastic scrapers, they are the least likely to cause problems if someone drops something with a bang behind you when you're in the middle of a scrape or some other thing happens to make you jump.

Refinishing scrapers don't need to be sharp, in fact they shouldn't be sharp, because the old softened finish should easily push off. If a scraper is sharp it makes it too easy to scrape off wood as well as old finish.

If you have a lot of scrap wood and want to be frugal and do some recycling use a piece of 1x4 (or other comfortable size) board a few inches long, sand all eight corners round. It doesn't have to be fancy, just a few swipes of the sandpaper to knock the sharp corners off and it works well for flat surfaces.

I used the table sander frequently to make rounded wood scrapers to scrape toosh shaped chair seats. Those seats can be frustrating to scrape with a flat scraper. You can make your own rounded scraper without a stand sander by using a utility razor knife to roughly shape a piece of 1x4, then tack a sheet of 80 grit sandpaper to a work table and finish shaping your rounded board. Lots of times it's worth the extra time and effort used in making the scraper to save time and your nerves when scraping the chair seats.

Water marks

email question . . . . .

Thank you for offering free advise! Today we bought an antique smoking stand with a marble top.

The grey marble has some brown stains on it - probably smoke? Is there a way to draw the stain out of the marble?

Secondly, we were caught in a rainstorm on the trip home (1 1/2 hrs.) and the piece was on it's side. When we uncovered it, we have white water marks blotching up one side. How can we restore it? Something like Formbys Face Life Kit?

Thanks for your help.

Sincerely,

--- William

Reply . . . . .

The white water stain on the wood should be easily fixed up. The white is probably only in a buildup of wax and polish over the years and not in the finish.

Prelude furniture cleaner should clean it nicely. The furniture cleaner will remove all of the buildup leaving just the finish.

If you'd like to protect it a little the Antiquax shown is good stuff. Use it sparingly and it'll give a good appearance.

I'd stay away from the Formbys facelift kit, it has an abrasive and that quite often isn't good for an antique.

All antiques need their evidence of age and it might be good to consider the stains in the marble as some of that evidence. Stains can be removed, but more than you desire can be removed too. The surface of the marble can darken and mellow over the years and the stain removal would undoubtedly remove that appearance too, leaving a light area in place of a dark area.

Michigan State University Extension has some good marble stain removal information.

Repair particle board for hinge

email question . . . . .

Thanks for your time.

I have a minor problem. I bought some of those cheap storage closets made if particle board from (major retailer's name removed to save my hide - Tom).

One of the door's hinges came loose from the particle board, taking some of the particle board with it. Now I have a too large hole for the screws to go back in. I would like to refill this hole, redrill it and reset the screws. I have heard that there is an expoy cement that will work. What do you think?

I also saw Norm Abrahms mix saw dust with carpenters glue one time, fill a gouge in a desk top, and then sand it off so it matched. Would this work to fill the the hole and then redrill it?

I've already tried plastic wood and that didn't work at all.

Thanks again for all your time.

Greg

Reply . . . . .

I've never tried the epoxy. It might be worth experimenting with. If you do use it you might try drilling two or three small holes at an angle in the sides of the big hole to give the epoxy, as a whole unit, something to hold it in.

Let the epoxy have a lot more curing time than is recommended to let it harden well before you drill.

If you don't have the original screws be sure to use lo-root type screws with a wide deep thread. A flat head sheet metal screw would do in a pinch, although the thread is wide it isn't very deep, but it's a lot better than a wood screw in particle board.

Use a toothpick to poke the epoxy into the side angle holes to be sure that they get filled.

Norm's a real winner. The sawdust in glue works good and would probably work as well or better than the epoxy. Use the angle holes with the sawdust and glue too.

If you ever use the sawdust and glue for a repair in something that is to be stained you'll need to mix stain with the sawdust and glue, because the glue will prevent the repair from taking a stain.

Another method for grabbers for repair substances. If the hole is quite large, drill several small holes at angles just the size of round toothpicks, cut the toothpicks off so that the ends will be just below the surface and glue them into the holes. The repair substance will dry and harden around the toothpicks and hold it in.

Kitchen cabinet painting and door marking

email question . . . . .

Hello, I am going to paint my cupboard doors with Sherwin-Williams oil based interior paint. They have had a really dark stain. I have scrubber them, and sanded a little with fine sandpaper. Do I need a primer coat on them before I start to paint? Can you give me any help on how to finish my project? I have the doors all taken off, handles and hinges removed. Thanks for any help you can give me.

Reply . . . . .

Although an old finish is a good base for a new paint job a prime coat would be a good idea since the old stain was dark. It could save you extra coats of the finish paint.

Look your sanded surfaces over at different angles in different light. If there are any shiny areas at all the paint won't stick to them. If you do have some glossy areas it might be a good idea to go over it all with a liquid deglosser, it could save some frustration. There's more information about liquid deglosser on our page liquid deglosser

Did you mark the location of each door as you took it off? It makes it a lot easier to put them back in the right places, but don't let it cause a panic situation if you didn't.

Each door has a specific place because when hinges are applied they may be a little different in location on each application or turned at a slight angle, although unnoticeable when you look at them it can make a big difference when you reinstall the door.

Put the hinges on the doors first, then make sure the hinge screw holes line up absolutely totally with the old screw holes. Don't force a screw in if the line up is almost exact, but not quite, because then you'd end up with two doors out of place and that can make for an unsatisfactory fit and appearance. Even being very careful you might have to do some door shuffling to get the doors back in the right place.

I'm going to add a little extra information because your subject is one that would be interesting to others so I'll use it in the newsletter. Anyone planning to remove kitchen cabinet doors can look at our web page for information about marking doors.

You can also find more information about kitchen cabinet painting.

Wicker reed - determine size

email question . . . . . I have four large armed wicker chairs. I have looked at your order web site. I do not know which Reed roll I should order. My chairs have the flat rolled wicker on them. It is not very wide. I am not sure which rolled reed I should order. How to I figure that out?

Thank you for your help.

Cindy

Reply . . . . .

On our wicker reed catalog page the shape choices are flat reed, round reed and flat oval reed.

The flat reed is flat on both sides, kind of like a popsicle stick.

The round reed is round like a pencil.

The flat oval reed is flat on one side and rounded on the other side, kind of like a pencil split in two down the length, but the rounded part is more of a half oval than half round.

For some unknown reason reed suppliers show some reed in inch measurements and some show metric measurements. The measurement is the diameter of the reed so if you see a number with mm after it the diameter is metric and if you see a fraction the measurement is inches.

Look at the end of the reed on your chairs for the shape, then measure the diameter at it's widest point with calipers if you have them or a plain old ruler if you don't have calipers.

If there is a size in inches in the shape you want on our page that would be the one you want. If you don't see what you need go to the top of the page and enter your measurement in the inch/metric conversion tool. Use decimal rather than fraction, for example .25 rather than 1/4. It will give you a mm conversion so then you can look for the shape you want with a number mm.

If you don't see your exact size, check your measurement and if it's correct you may have to go to the next size larger or smaller.

Decks and power washers

Anyone contemplating stripping a deck: The following information may help you, but be sure to do more investigation with the company shown. This is not a recommendation to do business with them, as I have never heard of them before, but they have information about a procedure and that information doesn't seem to be too plentiful.

email question . . . . .

well guys, I have always done good with colors, but this one has got to go! I used Olympic solid color stain on my deck just a month ago and I hate the color. I just want to go back to the wood stain/protector I should have used. The deck is cedar and a semi-transparent will do; however, how do I get this paint off! The deck is about 300sqft. I have researched enough to know I need to get a stripper and power washer to get it off, any ideas on a particular type or brand I should use.

thank you, I love your website and will tell others

Shelley

Reply . . . . .

Stripper and a power washer are a pretty scary combination. You could end up stripping the paint off the neighbors house too. I'm kind of chicken so I think I'd get down on my hands and knees and strip it off.

I've never run into this before so I went looking and found a site, Powersolve I don't know anything about them or their product, but they have a contact link where you might find out more information. They have a stripper designed to use with a power washer, so there must be a way to do it without having a neighbor chase you around the yard with a stick.

Handy refinishing tool

One of the most useful tools in your refinishing tool arsenal is a piece of dowel about the size of a pencil and sharpened in a pencil sharpener.

The sharpened dowel can be used to remove stripper residue and old finish from inside corners and other nooks and crannies. It's really handy for cleaning out carvings and the tight areas of spindles.

The point generally isn't hard enough to gouge wood, but use it with caution anyway.

After some use the point will soften, just resharpen it and away you go again.

Chips in veneer

email question . . . . .

What do you do if the antique furniture has a veneer finish that is chipped in places? Do you replace the whole thing?

Reply . . . . .

If the chips are small and the veneer around them is fastened down tight and they're obviously very old chips it's best to leave them as they are. Antiques need some oweys and other evidence of age to date them.

If they need to be repaired to keep the chipping from getting worse or if there are a lot of chips it's best if you can get some matching veneer and fill the chipped places, even very small ones. Second best is to use a wood filler and fill the chips, then sand carefully, stain them using an artists brush and finish.

If it's so bad that it makes the piece just plain ugly you could fill the chips to make the surface smooth and reveneer it.

If you do have to reveneer it will probably diminish the antique value of the piece.