Furniture restoration

[Anonymous No.894821]

'Sup /diy/nobots.

I harvested pic related off the side of the road a few months ago, I now have the time and space to commence restoration.

My plan is simply to sand it back and re-varnish it, but that meaty gouge on the top goes about a mill or so into the wood. The grain is not torn (so it would have been a blunt edge, not sharp) but there is definitely a depression there. I have filled this type of defect in the past with a mixture of woodglue and sanding dust from the wood I'm repairing, but considering the pattern on the timber this may stick out like dogs balls.

Any protips on lifting this dent? General suggestions before I fuck up what could be quite a nice piece if done well enough?

Bonus question; It had a mirror on the top backing (you can see one of the retainers on the right end of the long curve). Would a glazier be happy to do a small run like this (including the edge beveling) or am I going to be wasting my time making the calls?

Cheers /diy/!

[Anonymous No.894829]

steal your wife's iron and get a paper towel wet.

Set paper towel on crack, steam the shit out of it with iron. It might restore the dent damage. If material was removed, it will be less effective, it might puff up but it will dry out sooner or later and be a cavity again.

Otherwise I'd say just get all the way down to it. No telling how thick the paneling is. Maybe take the back off and you can see the veneer/panel so you can judge how much material you have to work with.

There's also card scrapers and planes. You have to be careful with everything unless you're lucky enough to have a 2' plane or something.

[Anonymous No.894832]

>>894829
That is, the iron should be pretty effective if it's a dent. The dented wood won't necessarily cave back in. The cells will be reinflated by the steam and unless pushed down again they won't have a reason to collapse.

Depending on how badly they are damaged thoug. And missing material is missing material.

[Anonymous No.894852]

>>894829
>>894832
Sweet! I presume I'll need to do this post sand to allow the moisture to permeate the wood?

There is a rail across the back so I cannot directly view the edge of the top surface, but the doors and drawers appear to be fronted with a 3 ply panel, the outer ply of which contains the pattern. It measures ~1mm thick, so I might be ok sanding down to it if needed. Pic related is the best shot I could get of the top, they are all about this deep but the end of the main gouge is noticeably deeper.

> missing material is missing material.
Exactly, which is why I am trying to do as little removal as possible. Even if the iron lifts a bulk of it I'm happy, the missus is prolly gunna throw some lacy clusterfuck of a tablecloth over it anyway, anything will look better than how it will if I revarnish with no fucks to give about the dents. Appreciate your input anon.

[Anonymous No.894925]

>>894852

>sand

No, scrape. Use a cabinet scraper first.

And if an iron fixes that shit I'll be surprised.

[Anonymous No.894927]

>>894925
Don't listen to this guy. Sanding is fine for a beginner. Card scraping is a pain in the ass if you don't know what you are doing. While your piece has lots of flat surfaces, which is ideal for a card scraper, stick with sanding. Do it by hand. Your piece appears to be veneer and its very easy to cut right through the veneer with a power sander.

As for the iron trick it will help but I don't think it will completely fix the damage. Doesn't hurt though. Do it before you sand.

[Anonymous No.894928]

>>894927
>don't listen to this guy
Don't listen to this guy.

Scrape it. You have a better chance of sorting that mess out if you do.

[Anonymous No.894933]

>>894925
>>894927
>>894928
How about I listen to neither of you and use a hot air gun? ;)

In other news, I'm familiar with card scraping. I bumped into a guy called David Termini on youtube and saw a video of his where he uses broken glass to refinish a sideboard leg. I thought it was clever as fuck and gave it a shot on the restore of a crappy old hallway table with fantastic results (especially on the turned legs). Most of his videos seem pretty legit to this amateur, might be worth other anons having a look at his channel..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BxnhEVJhTk

Didn't even consider it as a method because big flat surfaces, which are a snap with my normal go-to, a sanding block and some elbow grease. No way in hell I would be using a power sander on this thing, especially with that thin veneer as mentioned. I am quite happy to spend a bit of time on a manual process to guarantee a good result as opposed to the quick option (especially with power tools, ay too easy to over-cut if you're not paying attention). This will be hand worked all the way.

Anyone got any ideas on the mirror?

[Anonymous No.894944]

You should be able to find a glass shop that can cut that for you, however I haven't had anything contoured made in a long time so I can't give any idea on prices. Pretty much everything a local glass shop does is done per piece by hand so doing one item isn't a big deal. Check around, make some calls, if you don't have a full on glass shop around an automotive glass shops may be able to do it or know who would be able to.

You'll have to get them a good template if they can do it, so I'd say get some good cardboard, tape it up, and trace it out. Maybe even just take that to a shop with a picture and show them what you want to do.

[Anonymous No.894957]

>>894944
Thanks man. The backboard will be coming off before I commence restoring the top, plan was taking the whole thing to the glazier and letting them do their own template/whatever they gotta do to get it right on the spot. Much better than a fuckup because I didn't template it right.

[Anonymous No.894983]

I would be inclined to make a feature of it.
Inlay a unique pattern into in, maybe a nice line from back to front, or some organic pattern than just covers the scratch.

[Anonymous No.894985]

>>894983
Something like this running from the back to the front.

[Anonymous No.894986]

>>894983
Or something like this over the scratch.

[Anonymous No.895028]

>>894821
I'd sand it all to bare wood (which would be easy since OP's cabinet is mostly flat and square-edge pieces).

I would use a light colored stain because of the designs in the wood. Ligter color allows the designs to be more visible.

I would stain each piece one at a time so as to not make a mess.

You can use whatever finish you prefer but I'd reccommend Minwax Poly from Home Depot (remember light coats with a light sanding of 220 grit sandpaper in between each coat) shouldn't need more than 3 coats...if you do it right.

Somebody will indoubtedly bring up tung oil and varnish and linseed oil. I can't vouch for any of that because I've never used it---all the shops I've worked at used lacquer or poly.

[Anonymous No.895056]

Remove varnish with gel remover.
Finish with steel wool
Sand 80, then 120, then 220
Coat
Varnish

[Anonymous No.895088]

>>895028
tung oil made my $2000 table a $6000 table.

It's the shit, but I never use it unless it's a certain type of wood, or an expensive piece.

[Anonymous No.895090]

also sand the fucking thing, that's veneer and if you eat through that it's fucked so just sand lightly (those big scratches are probably permanent, who cares.)

[Anonymous No.895397]

>>894985
>>894986
Bruh.. If I was capable of pulling off that kind of work, I would not be posting on 4chan.

>>895028
This is pretty much the game plan, doors and backing are off, shelves are out. Is pic related what you're talking about? I'm ausfag so I'm not sure if it's the same product, but pic related is available locally.

Oils look nice but I have zero experience with them, plus a poly varnish is gunna require less ongoing maintenance afaik. Am I doing it wrong?

>>895088
> tung oil made my $2000 table a $6000 table.
How so?

>>895090
> Parrots everyone elses suggestions
> "who cares"
I do you windowlicking faggot. It's the entire fucking point of the thread, which you clearly haven't read. Why are you posting ?

[Stukki No.895537]

>>894933
even if it´s a german, this guy shows just the right tools and the easiest diffent styles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPjLNmEYEDQ

[hovel No.895539]

>>895397
tfw a coworker a few years back, after i showed him my cnc machine and what it could do, said"what the fuck are you doing working here?"

i used that polycrylic before, works good enough

[Anonymous No.895546]

>>894821
if you fuck it up or cant get rid of the dent, stripping the veneer off the top and buying some wont really run you that much cash, its not particularly special stuff and as long as you have a sharp knife, a small plane to make the connection between the 4 seperate pieces its a piece of piss to veneer tops.

i guess it all depends on how much you are willing to sink into it.

[Anonymous No.895961]

You aren't going to be able to fix that damage. I would sand the surface until the finish is gone and then fill the gouge marks with some kind of filler. I use shellac that I leave open until it is thick and build it up and sand it flat when it is dry. If you can get a uniform color on the top the damage will not be so noticeable. Add in the dark lines too.

[Anonymous No.895965]

>>894933
Dang that video is neat as fuck. Thanks for sharing.

[Anonymous No.895994]

i sell used furniture and I see you are really devoted. but a quick fix is stain that spot and wax it. Try to go slightly darker than the original color.

but that was a sweet video.