Stripping furniture.

Stripping furniture doesn't always involve using strong toxic chemicals like methylene. Often if the piece has shellac or lacquer as a top coat you could use solvents to strip the piece. But first you will need to know the solvent binder in the finish you are trying to remove. For example the image above is a table top with 2 drop leafs. The finish on the piece has been determined to be shellac. How did I determine the finish? I used a cotton q-tip dipped in solvent to see if the finish would react to a particular solvent.

As we all know denatured alcohol or grain alcohol melts/softens shellac. So I took t-shirt rags spread them across the top and pored alcohol on them. I let the rags sit for 5 mins or so and checked the progress. Upon inspection I take notice of the finish and see if it appears gummy. If you ever used chemical strippers than you know exactly what I mean by the gummy appearance. If and when the surface is ready I would wipe the surface down with the rag soaked in alcohol.  Often it takes two rounds of ragging. This process can be used on shellac and lacquer, I have to test it on another finishes. Always remember to dispose or air out the rags properly.

After the finish has been removed sand lightly and top coat the piece once again.

Happy solvent stripping.

Furniture Hardware. Keeping track.

When restoring furniture often this means taking pieces apart. But like taking a car engine apart, I am not just going to do grab all the hardware and put them in a box or a glass jar. Instead I am going to have holder laying out exactly where each piece of hardware came from. Often I use a piece of cardboard and just make a series of holes with a knife or an awl. Than I place the screws, nails, escutcheon pins, locks, handles, hinges, or whatever in a sequence that allows me the reassurance that everything goes back exactly where they came from. The holder can be made from cardboard or plywood or even hardwood. Lastly I make notations on the holders so that not only I can I install the hardware exactly, but that my subs can too. For example I will label a series of screws with the word left (L) and right (R) to make certain I don't flip the screws around. If L & R isn't enough I even label from what position I am looking at the piece when I wrote L & R. 

While this may be a simple tip it is amazing how useful it can be in the shop or onsite. 

Cheers.

Broken round tenon

I am in the beginning stages of repairing 110 chairs for the MIT chapel in Boston Massachusetts. When I am repairing any piece of furniture new, vintage, or antique I always weigh my options. The question I always ask myself is can I save the damaged area or do I need fabricate a new part. There are many things to consider when making this decision and they should not be taken lightly. In the video above you will see me saving a chair rail from one of the MIT chairs by fabricating a new tenon.

The process... To save the chair rail I vertically bored a 1/2 inch hole about 1 inch deep in the chair rail. The rail was 5/8 thick overall. By boring a hole perfectly centered I knew I had 3/32 -1/8 inch of wood all around to help hold the new tenon in place.  Why bore 1 inch in the rail? Over the years I have tested different length and width tenons in holes and have determine that 1 inch is ideal. Anything less can break and anything more doesn't drastically improve the strength.

Once the hole is bored I take a dowel and size it to fit in the 1/2 inch hole. I make the tenon by rotating over a saw blade while using a miter gauge.  This is really quick work and really easy.

The adhesive I love using for such repairs is West System G/Flex epoxy. This epoxy is thick, slow setting, and wicked strong.  I have tested this epoxy by gluing two pieces MDF for 24 hours and than trying to break the joint. What resulted from the bashing of the hammer was everything else broke but not the joint.  

After the epoxy is dry I am ready to glue the chair. The new joint/tenon is stronger than ever. Please note epoxy is only used when all other options will possibly fail. There is no need to use epoxy to glue up the chair. Always think about the next person who will need to fix the chair in the future. 

Thank you for reading and watching the short video. 

Cheers!

 

Labeling parts

 I'm in the middle of restoring 110 chairs for a chapel in Boston.  I need to disassemble each of the chairs while keeping track of all the parts.  So what is my method to the madness of parts laying around the shoppe?  Well its pretty simple actually, I use blue tape and a sharpie and label every part. It is very important that each of the markings can easily be seen and each chair has its unique labeling system. By unique labeling system I mean not every chair will start with the letter A or number 1. Some chairs depending on quantity of parts may start with the letter Z and work back to the letter A or start at number 99 and work back to number 1. Some chairs may even have a combination of numbers and letters. When things start to get crazy than I switch color tape from blue to green to purple.  

 In the end it doesn't matter what you label the parts just as long as they go back exactly where they came from.  One important thing to remember is don't use masking tape or duct tape. The adhesives on these two tapes are often to strong and will remove the finish or just leave terrible tape residue which now needs to be removed.

As you can see there is no way I can screw this up and that is the point of labeling.  I hope this helps.

When to hold an item ransom.

Lets talk business! In my business I have learned the hard way that you can't always trust every word or promise coming from your client. While this may be hard to swallow or even read by many, it is the truth. Sadly like everything in life a few bad apples spoils it for everyone else.  

When it comes to business I am now a big believer in having a small contract ready for all transactions big or small. The contract I use entails the contact information, the dimensions of the items, the species, the condition of the item, the work necessary, an estimate, an agreement and understanding that I am not responsible for fire, theft, damage, the payment schedule. Lastly in the proposal I roughly give them a possible date of completion. I always like to keep the client informed of my schedule just incase a job before theirs gets delayed, that way they understand their starting date may get pushed back.  The reason for this is that I am a one man shoppe and I can only do so much.  

For payments I now request 1/2 up front, a 1/4 of the payment three quaters of the way done, and 1/4 on delivery. I must get paid first before delivery even starts. If the payment is over a $1,000 dollars they can pay me in a check, with credit card, and/or cash. If I have a funny feeling I am going to going to get screwed or if this is the first time doing business with a client than a bank check and cash is the only option. As a business you must be aware that clients can cancel a check and a credit card payment. But the client can not cancel a bank check and this gives me the necessary control of a transaction. 

This leads me to holding furniture as ransom. Please note this doesn't happen often but when it does I must be prepared. There have been times that I set up a delivery, unload the furniture, and than client tells me oh I forgot the check book at the office or I don't have my wallet. Often clients are being honest but you never really know. There has been times that I delivered a chest of drawers and I have taken back the drawers. There has been other times that I taken the leaves of the dining table, or even taken the seats of a set of chairs but left the chairs. This is how I control the situation. This is business and I often compare myself to a car mechanic. If you drop off your car for repairs, than when come to pick up your vehicle the bill must be paid.   

In the same retrospect if something is wrong with the piece I repaired than I have the responsibility to take care of the piece at no cost to the client. That is of course if the issue was agreed upon in the contract. 

I hope this post is helpful for you and may it give you a better understanding what this business is all about. 

Cheers!

Book Recommendation on Furniture Care and Conservation

 Often I get asked if there is a book on furniture care, repair, and conservation.  Really the best response is to join GROOP other wised known as the Professional Refinishers Group. This group of individuals are all over the USA and overseas. The members are all professionals and range in age from their 30's to 60's.  Some are professional conservators, restorers, makers, upholsters, violinist, and woodworkers.  We as a groop are what we call family and all we want is to share information and ask questions amongst our groop and get answers.  This is a support groop and secrets don't exist.

But if I had to recommend one book it would Furniture Care and Conservation by Robert F. McGiffin, Jr. Its a great book with a ton information. The methods in this book still are standards in the repair world.  The photo below showcases the chapters in the book.