[ravensrock]

Hello everyone,

My daughter spilled nail polish remover (acetone) on our kitchen table. As you can see in the pics it went clear through the finish down to the bare wood in the biggest spot. Some other smaller spots didn't go all the way through but feel rough to the touch. Any options besides refinishing the whole top? And if I have to do that, what about the curved edges. Would it look right to just do the top? Thanks in advance.

 

[Whiskers]

Yikes, glad I don't have daughters. I'm not expert in finishing and patching them, so I will leave that to others, but If you can give any insight into how it was finished to begin with, that would help.

 

[ravensrock]

I know there are a lot of finishing experts on here. Anybody have any other thoughts?

 

[distrbd]

Did you consider sanding the whole top and redo it all over ?it would give you the uniform look that you are after.
I am no expert but I wonder if PVR will do a good job at removing the old varnish.

 

[mojapitt]

I would sand top only. Unless you are going to change its color. Then I would do the entire piece.

 

[thetinman]

Rather than sanding the top, I use a scraper. A painter's scraper, run over the sander or grinder gives a nice edge. Just pull it towards you and increase the angle when you are comfortable. Some people are afraid of scrapers but they are very easy to use and leave a fine surface. It is surprisingly fast with little to no fine dust. I would only do the top.

 

[ravensrock]

Thanks for the replies…sounds like the consensus so far is having to refinish the whole top and not just repair the damage.

distrbd- What is PVR? Can't be personal video recorder.

thetinman- Are you referring to a card scraper? I'm picturing a painter's scraper as more of a rough tool. If I end up having to refinish the whole top I was thinking I would have to sand it down to the bare wood, then try to match the color of the edges as close as possible. Is this not correct?

 

[thetinman]

No not a card scraper. A painter's scraper with a handle on it. You are right to think that it might be rough picturing a painter knocking down pealing paint, etc. They come rather dull. Take the blade out and run it over your sander or grinder. It will sharpen the edge. You don't need a knife-edge, just not dull like they come. Now, say you are right handed, hold the handle in your right hand and apply pressure with your left. How much you take off is determined by the pressure and the angle. The other purpose of your left hand on the head is to hold it flat. The only way you can gouge is to twist the blade. Surprisingly easy - but intimidating at first. Oh, don't scrape from over an edge. Start just inside and scrape to the edge. All of the finish will come off in thin easily controlled ribbons. Then lightly sand and refinish. You'll never use sandpaper to remove a finish again. Fast, easy and clean.

 

[Mustang67]

I am definitely no finishing expert, and the others might disagree, but I would be tempted to try to match it (especially if it's shellac) on a small spot, and then if I didn't like it, sand/scrape. I don't think I'd touch the edges either if I didn't have to, or unless the new color is way different.

 

[jdh122]

If acetone went through the finish that thoroughly I'd think that the finish is probably shellac (very waterproof, almost no resistance to alcohols and solvents), from the looks of it maybe amber shellac. Like Mustang67 I'd try to patch it first - if it's simply amber shellac it should repair pretty easily and the patch will dissolve into the surrounding area.
Of course there's a pretty good chance that it won't work but you'll only be out a few dollars for the shellac.

 

[SCOTSMAN]

Redo the whole top. IMHO .
I had a problem like this with a very old antique table with some obvious scrtaches on top It would never have been acceptable to patch it.
And since the table was my own and I have no intention of selling it with Obvious antique patina problems etc
I just sanded the whole top and put on some sealer then varnished with polyurethane varnish not water based which I find too soft in general .It turned out really nice and looks better than ever with all the marquetry colours showing through for the first time in years.I was not particularly valuable so I had a go with what at least I consider with really good results.Alistair

 

[Knothead62]

Tablecloth with glass over it.

 

[ravensrock]

Knothead62- I was considering place mats. But what kind of woodworker would I be if i didn't at least try to fix this.

I'm told this is parawood. Anyone have any experience with this? I honestly never heard of it before. Just quickly searched google and seems it can be difficult to get an even finish. I guess there would be no harm in trying to just fix the messed up spots. If it doesn't work I can always refinish the whole top.

jdh122- I've always just used some kind of stain and poly to finish my projects so never even got into trying shellac yet. But that would be great if that's all it took. Might have to pick up a can of amber shellac and see what happens.

I'm guessing I need to lightly sand the damaged areas first. Is this right?

 

[a1Jim]

A couple points here,Acetone will remove many finishes not just shellac. Acetone is one of the stongest solvents out there. Shellac has a very poor resistance to water and the way to test to see if its shellac is to use some denatered alcohol on a rag in a hidden area and see if it readily dissolves the top coat . If it is shellac you can try wipeing the spill area down with naptha and lightly sand with some 600 grit wipe clean and spray a light coat of dewaxed shellac (it comes in a rattle cans) let dry and apply another coat. If it doesn't look like the rest of the top you can either try to add stain or dye to the damaged area or just sand the whole top and refinish.

 

[Finisherman]

Do you have the ability to spray finishes? If you do, I'd suggest the following approach. Mask off the area and create an opening in the masking material that's roughly the same size as the damaged area. Next, use an airbrush or a touch up gun to apply a toner made with a thinned finish, to which you add a dye like trans tint. The trick here is to apply the toner only to the damaged area without changing the colour on the rest of the surface. If you don't have an airbrush or a touch up gun, you can buy aerosol toners from companies that cater to the finishing trade, such as Mohawk. Incidentally, Charles Neil has a vide on you tube which talks about how to correct problems like this. It's entitled "fixing finishing mistakes." It's worth a look.

 

[Purrmaster]

My guess is that the finish on that table is nitrocellulose lacquer. As a1Jim said, acetone is very strong stuff and is part of lacquer thinner. Most factory made furniture is finished with lacquer because it dries fast. Also, such furniture isn't usually stained. The lacquer is tinted instead.

Fixing lacquer is actually relatively easy because you can always slap more lacquer on top. The new lacquer will meld into the old. The problem I foresee is color matching. If color matching isn't a problem you can probably just get a rattle can of lacquer and spray it.

 

[jdh122]

Looks like my guess of shellac was way off - didn't realize acetone would eat through other finishes too. Amazing how much you can learn on LJ.

 

[ravensrock]

Finisherman- I don't have spray equipment but found the aerosol toners you spoke of on the Mohawk website. I will watch the Charles Neil video and have already sent him an email for his thoughts. As Purrmaster says, matching the color will be the hard part from what I can see.

Some other questions:
- Is the consensus that it is a tinted lacquer finish? Based on what a1Jim says I doubt they'd use a shellac finish on a kitchen table likely to get wet.
-Should I use a pigment or dye based aerosol toner?
-Are you able to blend shades with layers of spray to try to make a color match? And I suppose it's just guessing the right color since I don't have a sample piece of the same material to experiment with?

 

[a1Jim]

ravensrock
It may be a while before Charles can get back to you ,he is moving his shop an may not be available right away.
Finisherman has good advice similar to what Charles has in his finishing book about repairing damaged finishes .

 

[Finisherman]

Ravensrock:

I agree Purrmaster regarding the likelihood that the table is finished with nitrocellulose lacquer, or something similar. Shellac generally isn't used on factory finished furniture. It's just not durable enough. I think that you're dealing with a tinted lacquer here, and probably one that contains a dye. As for the aerosol toners, I'd try a dye based one first. The reason being that dyes are more transparent than pigments which can make the surface appear muddy, especially if applied heavily. I generally used dye based toners to enhance the grain of the wood, but I'll sometimes use a pigmented toner if I'm trying to disguise flaws in the surface (putty spots etc.). As far as blending the colour to achieve a good match is concerned, yes, you can, but be careful. Here again, you'd probably have the greatest success with a dye based toner. As I said before, pigmented toners can appear muddy if multiple layers are applied. Finally, is it possible for you to use the underside of one of the table's leaves as your test panel? If not, I'd go find friend who has a cabinet shop and ask for a scrap of maple to use as your test panel.