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Do It Yourself Furniture Repair
by Peter Triestman
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Wax your furniture- to build up the
finish, cover scratches or damages, and to
obtain a more durable and long-lasting
improvement than oil polish. Apply a hard paste
wax with 0000 steel wool using a few drops of
water to help emulsify the wax, and apply it as
thinly as possible, rubbing with the grain of
the wood. When finished applying the wax, let it
dry and harden for an hour or so, then wipe off
all excess wax with a clean, unused dry steel
wool pad. Complete the waxing by buffing with a
clean pure cotton rag, an old tee shirt will
work well, or cheesecloth. Repeat the process
and apply as many coats as you need to build up
the finish on the furniture. Wax will not hurt
anything, although it can dull a glossy finish.
Wax can be removed readily with mineral spirits
or turpentine, which should be done if there is
a grimy build up.
Recovering a dining room chair "slip"
seat- A slip seat is padded over a plywood
panel, about 1 1/2" thick, and held in place
under the chair with four screws at the corners.
Remove the seat, remove all the old fabric if
the padding is thin or uncomfortable and strip
away the padding. Glue with contact cement a 1"
thick medium to high density foam rubber cut off
even with the edges of the chair seat panel, and
apply a 1/2" polyester batting over the foam
rubber. Then apply your fabric over the padding
with about 1" extra around the bottom of the
seat, pull tight and tack in place around the
corners of the seat, then pull in between the
tacks and staple using ¼" staples (T-50 staples
will work well), pulling the fabric tightly and
evenly around the seat.
Regluing a platform chair (with wooden
seat)- A chair should be maintained so it is
always tight. There should not be any wobbling
or looseness detectable. A chair is a dangerous
thing if not well maintained. A dining table can
collapse and you will only lose dinner. A chair
can collapse, and a person's back can be
injured. You will need a least a dozen metal
clamps about 24" or longer, a coping saw and
pine or fir to cut for clamping brackets, and
yellow wood glue or hide glue. Don't use epoxy
or polyurethane glue. You should also have some
mechanical aptitude to judge how the work is
progressing.
Disassemble the chair completely with a rubber
mallet, marking the components with tape so you
can reassemble it the same way, and scrape off
the glue using a chisel from the leg and spindle
ends. If the legs aren't loose where they attach
to the wood seat, don't try to remove them. They
may be wedged in place, and not removable
without special techniques to avoid damage. Use
a drill or rasp to remove glue from inside the
mortises where the leg and spindle ends are
inserted. Glue does not adhere to glue, so this
is a step that must be completed meticulously
for the regluing to hold. Then reassemble the
chair and check to see that the chair fits
together tightly when clamped, without
looseness. You will need to cut some pieces of
soft wood to fit around the back and the seat,
to allow clamping to apply force parallel to the
spindles and the legs before applying glue. Then
disassemble and reglue, clamping all the parts
together under pressure to force all the joints
fully together. Wipe off all the excess glue
with a damp cloth. Allow to dry at least 12
hours or a day before removing the clamps. If
done properly, you should not need to repeat for
at least 50 years.
Removing grime from furniture- This
should be done with sensitivity, or the finish
may be damaged. Try on inconspicuous spots
first, and see how it looks a day later before
working on the entire piece of furniture. There
are many different types of finishes, including
oil finish, wax, lacquer (most common),
varnishes, and shellac and they can be damaged
by what you use to remove the grimy buildup. We
will only describe a relatively safe technique
for removing oily, waxy buildup from lacquer,
shellac, and varnish finishes. Purchase a water
base wax stripper, dilute it, and apply with a
small cotton pad in an inconspicuous area. If
the result is good, continue. If little result
is obtained, try a more concentrated solution.
Be careful that you are not damaging the
underlying finish. Old varnishes can be soft and
easily removed, and you may not want to go that
far.
Removing paint spatters from lacquered
furniture- Try using xylene mixed half and
half with mineral spirits. Apply with cotton
pads, wearing rubber or nitrile surgical gloves.
If this doesn't work rapidly enough, try full
strength xylene.
What Not To Do, unless you really
want to Do It Yourself-
Do not try to strip and refinish furniture
in an apartment. If you manage to strip the
furniture without getting spatters of remover
all over other possessions and ruining them, you
will most likely get sickened from the remover,
or get dust all over everything you own, in all
the rooms, from the sanding. REMOVE FINISHES AND
SAND OUTSIDE, OR DON'T DO IT ALL.
Do not iron clothes on your dining table,
unless you want to refinish it.
Do not remove or apply nail polish over a
dining table, EVER! Nail polish remover is an
excellent furniture finish remover, and a few
choice spots, and that is what you will have to
do.
Do not fail to walk your dog, it needs one
hour a day of exercise, and will make you suffer
otherwise by nervously chewing on your
furniture.
Do not fail to have an interesting
scratching and climbing post for your cat, or
your furniture may suffer when you are not
there. When you are there, try yelling "NO!" and
squirting your cat if you catch it scratching
something it has no business doing.
Do not let guests sit in weak or too small
chairs. Try a rope across the seat. Fat people
love to sit in tight chairs to prove how skinny
they aren't.
Don't think nails, screws, or duct tape are
the solution for everything. If they were not in
the furniture before, they will only serve as a
focus to break up the furniture further if it is
loose.
Do not let upholsterers or your building
superintendant repair your furniture. A
cabinetmaker knows how to do it, an upholsterer
will make repairs you will regret and pay a
cabinetmaker to fix later.
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