Chair stripping help

I have picked up 6 old (1920ish?) chairs for our dining room and are in need of refinishing. Now I have never stripped anything and sure could use some guidance on what to use to strip them. This will be a winter project done in my basement shop if that means anything as to what kind of stripper to use. Thank you in advance and will post as I proceed. Here is an as is

Things to consider, Tom, include more than fumes, though that is not insignificant. Every stripper I ever came across stipulated use with LOTS of ventilation. You sure don't want to make the whole household sick or worse.

Then there is the matter of effectiveness. The best I ever tried was CitrusStripper, and it left lots to be desired. A product with methyl chloride is supposed to be the thing, but a product with an effective amount in it is hard to find. Something about carcinogenic.

Then there is the mess and worse, the disposal of the mess. It is considered toxic. I sure wouldn't burn it to dispose of it.

Then I found a professional stripping shop and compared prices. His price was little more than I could buy the materials to strip. The difference more than made up for the mess. Not saying don't to it. But you might make a cost comparison and then see what you think. In any event be careful. This is serious stuff.

Now waiting for Dave Hawksford to weight in....

i agree with carol have them done by someone else tom,, a dip tank and then rinse tank setup like dave uses is by far the best method..

Little lesson here...... never use a dip tank. It will losen any glue joints that have not be reglued after dipping.
Quick way to strip 1920's furniture is to strip with denature alcohol and 3m purple pad or homedepot carries a stripper in a spray can that works very good. Use the 3m pad to remove stripper also.
Clean with alcohol let dry and sand.

And make sure to wear proper protection. If it's just shellac and you can strip it off with DNA it's not to bad, but if you have to go to something more aggressive be aware that latex gloves don't cut it (and you can actually absorb stuff from the gloves which can be as bad as the stripper in some cases) so cross check the MSDS for whatever you use for proper protection (butyl rubber is generally good for most things).

Honestly they don't look to bad. If you don't mind keeping some of the old feel it might be interesting to see if you could just cut in a light shellac top coat (maybe lightly sand back the rough spots first) and see how it looks. You would keep some of the color variation, but would brighten them up a bit. Not sure if that's your style or not but figured I'd throw out the idea anyway

I may start by sanding, maybe that is all that is needed? Just get rid of scratches re-stain and varnish Can't hurt and no nasty chemicals

Tom Niemi said:

I may start by sanding, maybe that is all that is needed? Just get rid of scratches re-stain and varnish Can't hurt and no nasty chemicals

Click to expand...

That was basically my thought, although you'll want to figure out what the current finish is to match (Dave's probably correct as usual on it being shellac, if so alcohol will quickly make it tacky). Worst case you give it a shot on one chair and decide it's not what you want, and you're not to far behind.

Gees, Dave. Wish there had been Family Woodworking when I took on a 1909 Baptismal font made by an amateur out of fruit boxes (labels still on in the inside) which had been 9 different finishes on it over the years. You are right about the joints needing re-gluing but to be fair, some needed help before the stripper bath. All got reglued, repaired, replaced, refinished and re-gilded. Turns out most of my birth family going back 70 years had been baptized at that font, including me! Was an honor to restore it. Pictures on a hard drive - somewhere.

Would live to see that Carol, if not buried too deep on the hard drive
Going to pick up some denatured alcohol and purple 3m pads and see what happens, and a pile of sand paper for the ROS Thanks all for the suggestions

Tom mix up a cleaner solution of 1/3 dna,1/3 blo, 1/3 turp's. This will clean and finish , if done corect. Use a terry cloth and clean by rubbing small sections at a time. The dna will loosen , the turps will remove dirt and the blo will remain. You will see a lot of dirt coming off onto the rag. Left the residue semi dry for an hr or 2, then buff out. If you get the feel for this solution you can use burlap , super fine steel wool , 3m purple pad to clean. But you need to have a light touch and good ventilation.

Thanks Dave, I will alter my shopping list and wait for a little warmer day than today (20 degrees) and head for the garage instead of the basement

If you buy quarts that will be plenty. I use a dish washing liquid bottle. Easy to shake up and open and close.

Stripping furniture can be a royal PITA. Ultimately if that's what has to be done, it would be easier to just get a pro to do it. They are set up for the ordeal. With projects like yours, I would first determine what actually I want to do. Is it just to refurbish the finish? If so, a good wipe down with mineral spirits will remove contaminants. . Then you could lightly scuff sand with 320x and try an oil stain. I like to use an open coat sandpaper. Or if you can spray, mist an alcohol (methanol) based dye to tone in the color. An easy topcoat would be just a wipe on interior oil base varnish. Beyond that, if the oil stain doesn't do the trick, you could use a gel stain, which if used according to directions can be applied over most any finish.

As for going for a more serious refinish. I like to start with the least toxic, easiest to use method. That would be CitraStrip. It's a water base stripper that smells like oranges, and can be used indoors. It's not as toxic as an MC based (methylene chloride). But it can be re-applied a few times if necessary. Clean up is with water. A heat gun can do wonders in removing a finish, but stay away from glued joints. Lacquer thinner can be used.

Moving up on the stripper effectiveness is the MC based strippers. They are toxic as all get out. When the directions say do in a well ventilated area, they mean it. It will make a mess, but it does remove a finish. The strongest stripper I've used available over the counter is called "Aircraft Stripper" in the blue can (not a spray can). I've seen it at HD. There are tests to figure out what the existing finish is. If you don't want to get into that, lacquer thinner will remove most of them.



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