I have never worked with wood before, and this is going to be my first DIY wood project. I did a significant amount of research, but still have questions as I don't want to damage a piece of furniture I am working on.
I have an old solid wood coffee table. It has scratches and black rings, so I decided to refinish it. In my understanding, the workflow is as follows:
- Strip off the old finish
- Remove the residue using a stripping pad soaked in mineral spirits.
- Bleach the top to get rid of the black rings.
- Sand the table.
- Apply a pre-stain conditioner
- Stain
- Apply a finish. Sand after each coat.
My questions are as follows:
- Is my understanding correct?
- Which steps are optional?
- Would you recommend to sand manually or use an orbital sander?
- What type of finish should I apply if I want to preserve the matte look of the table?
I appreciate your help and apologize if some of questions sound silly.
Best Answer
Let me start by saying, I have refinished my share of furniture. What kind of top coat is that? To me it just looks stained and maybe shellac. How old is it may determine the top coat. Are the black rings on the top coat? First, I would not use stripper. Makes more of a mess than worth it. I would just clean it with mineral spirits, let dry and sand. You can use a random orbital or sheet orbital is ok to use during resurfacing but ensure to progress threw the various grits. You can use pre-stain conditioner but that is usually for new wood, not refinishing, unless you have removed all of the stain (very hard to do) and you are doing a major color change. I.E. Dark to light or light to dark. Depending on what you use, you do not sand after each coat of finish only fine steel wool or very fine sand paper (hand sand only). Top coat finish is a personal preference. I use oil-based polyurethane for all of my projects because of the durability, takes a little longer but worth the effort. I hope I helped and good luck!