I have a Philco 39-6 I am looking to redo the finish on. I have never done the whole lacquer process, but have stained and poly'd an entire house worth of trim and doors. I know that won't help me a lot in this process, just a little background on my current refinishing skills. I would like to do this properly with lacquer. Here is the front and right side (left looks pretty much the same) of it. I did get some #14 cloth from RD and have taken out the hideous cloth in there and put it on the cardboard backer. I will probably get a new dial cover as well from Mark P, as this one is yellowed and cloudy. Novus didn't do much to help it either.
The finish is not great on here, and it's small, so I figure it would be a good candidate for a first try. There was a split on the top. Someone recommended putting a steam iron on it and compressing the split and letting it cool to reseal the glue. It seemed to work for the most part. I'm guessing it will need a little extra work yet.
There are two small-ish chips out of the veneer at the top back edge of the radio. The larger one is in the walnut veneer and the smaller in the inlay. Not sure how to fix that, or if I'll just let it go. Thoughts?
I want start collecting supplies. I'm not worried about supplies I can get at the local hardware or big box store (I have a Rockler local too in a pinch, but not sure if they stock everything I would need). Mainly the stuff I will need to get online and shipped.
As I understand it, the proper process at a high level is:
Strip (with a commercial stripper or just lacquer thinner)
Make any repairs to the veneer
Apply grain filler
Sand grain filler
Spray several coats of toner
Spray coats of clear
Do I have the basic process right?
Stripper I can get the citrus stuff and/or lacquer thinner locally.
Grain filler I have never seen locally. I've seen a lot of votes for Constantine's wood filler paste. Should I get it natural, or walnut tinted?
Toner I have not seen locally either. As I understand for this radio, you want Medium Walnut and either Extra Dark Walnut or Black for the edges. I'm assuming since you want to see the grain on the main surfaces, I would use the dye based Ultra Classic Toner Medium Brown Walnut, and for the edges the pigment based Tone Finish Toner Extra Dark Walnut/Black. Any thoughts on the extra dark walnut vs. black?
For the clear, I've seen a lot of recommendations for Deft. I'm assuming Interior Clear Wood Finish Satin Lacquer would be what I want. I don't think I can easily find this locally either, so I would have to order it.
I'm assuming the rest of the supplies I can get locally. Anything supply wise I'm missing here? In WI, we are entering prime time for this (warm and not humid), so I probably have about 1-1.5 months to get his done. Otherwise it will have to spill over September as July and August tend to be fairly humid here.
There many opinions out there on how to do the refinish but you have the general process down I think.
I use citristrip (its a little gentler than some others) or just lacquer thinner to strip. (even with the chemical strip I follow-up with a wipe down with lacquer thinner to get the remaining residue off) If you use lacquer thinner approach...do it outside!!! I would put down a layer of sanding sealer before you do the grain fill (deft sells a spray version though I have to order mine online since the stores rarely carry it). The grain fill can stain and darken the wood and the sealer tends to prevent that. Toner coats are as few or many as needed to get the tone you are looking for. I would use black on the trim. I've used an acrylic paint sometimes and black lacquer sometimes, both seem to work for me. The veneer chip looks pretty small and may be tough to reveneer. There's a tutorial that Kirk did, but if its small you might just be able to fill it with your grain filler or some Timbermate (walnut). When toned it may not show much at all. I would use gloss clear lacquer, then let the final coat of it dry for several weeks before the final sand and rub out with pumice and rottenstone (some folks use other polishing compounds).
There are several folks on the Phorum who are really excellent at refinishing so I hope they will offer their advice as well.
Oh, trust me Kirk, there will be lots of questions.
Anyway, it turns out there is a Mohawk distributor not to far from me. So I can pick up most of the supplies (assuming I go all Mohawk) locally and save quite a bit on shipping. His prices also seem very cheap - pretty much all aerosols are only $5.96. He does have a website and ships too if anyone is interested - https://www.jfwfs.com is his site. I have yet to deal with him and have no connection to him - I just discovered him today.
So, as long as he is local and I can save shipping, I'm thinking of going all Mohawk from him with the following stuff:
TONE FINISH TONER EXTRA DARK WALNUT (or Black, still undecided - open to opinions in addition to Kirk who already voiced his )
ULTRA CLASSIC TONER MEDIUM BROWN WALNUT
TONE FINISH LACQUER SANDING SEALER
ULTRA FLO CLEAR GLOSS (or is satin more correct?)
GRAIN FILLER MEDIUM WALNUT QT
I see they also make an epoxy filler in various colors. Would something like tjis be good to cheat and fill my chips in with?
Agree with Kirk - Medium Walnut overall, Extra Dark Walnut on the side edges.
I would use Medium Walnut Tone Finish and Extra Dark Walnut Ultra Classic. The Medium Walnut Tone Finish does have pigment instead of dye, but unlike other Tone Finish colors, it won't turn to paint after a coat or two and obliterate the grain. I have not tried Medium Brown Walnut Ultra Classic so I can't comment on it.
The original finish would have been high gloss, rubbed out to sort of a semi-gloss look. Kirk can tell you more about doing that.
Ron, thanks. I guess I thought you wanted the dye based for anywhere the grain shows, and the pigment based for the trim where it gets hidden. But (at least in the case of Medium Walnut) you are saying the reverse. I'll take your word for it. So I'll switch around the types of toner for when I order/pick up the stuff.
Well, I haven't gotten around to stripping the cabinet yet, but I just ran to the Mohawk distributor after work. I talked to him about the small chip. He told me I could use a light color of that epoxy to fill it, and a grain pen to blend it. I also noticed when I got home, I inadvertently got TONE FINISH TONER MEDIUM BROWN/AMERICAN WALNUT instead of just "medium walnut".
Any idea if that will still give good results, or should I run back tomorrow and exchange it? I really don't want to run back of it's not necessary as his limited hours require me to run out of work and drive in rush hour traffic both ways.
American Walnut seems to have less of a red tinge and more of a brown/dark brown. I think it will work and not be very noticable if you go light with the coats.
The guys I usually go to lunch with were off today, so I burned most of my lunch hour to go swap the toner. I'd rather do this with a tried and true color than gamble on another.
Assuming I get this stripped (citristrip followed up with lacquer thinner), I'm assuming the next step would be to fill the chip with the putty. Let that dry. Then sand.
So for sanding, what are the best grits to start with and work my way up to? And I'm assuming I have to do some odd 45degree sanding on the two lighter striped areas?
And then once the sanding is done, wipe it down with thinner again to get the dust off? Then draw the grain on the putty patch, let it dry, then shoot a coat of sanding sealer? The guy at the Mohawk store recommended something called E-Z Vinyl Sealer when I asked for a sanding sealer.
Kirk - Be careful what you wish for. I find when you wish for things like that, you spend waaaaay too much money there.
no need for stripping, just use lacquer thinner. The fill and sand with a block. I would not sand the entire cabinet. There is no need. If you really want to then 400-800. E-Z vinyl sealer is just more expensive. I got a gallon of minwax sealer from home depot for $36.00. It will last a loooong time.
Progress on this has been slower than I would like due to real life. Anyway, i finally got around to stripping. First I tried just straight lacquer thinner. It was working, but taking for ever. So I moved on to citristrip. That seemed to do the trick. However, I'm left with 2 issues that I think need to be addressed before moving on to grain filling.
The first is that it looks like someone may have done some work on this cabinet in the past. In a couple places are these odd looking zig zag scratches. I'm assuming I should just take some 400 and then 800 grit to try and get them out. There are some other scratches on it too.
The second is in side the grain, there is some white material left behind. Not sure if this is some dried up citristrip that didn't come out or what. unfortunately, an emergency came up and I had to let the stuff dry on the wood before I could get it totally off. I gave it a wipe down with mineral spirits as recommended on the citristrip bottle, and also with thinner again. it got some of it out, but there is still a fair amount left. Its better in some spots (like this picture) and worse in others. Is this going to be a problem? Or any other ideas to get it out?
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