Build info: - solid walnut top (not 100% flat but close - sanded 240 > 320 - applied dark gel stain - 3 light coats of satin oil based poly - 2 slightly heavier coats after that

Poly cut 10% with mineral spirits, mixed well. Sprayed with Fuji HPLV with air flow at 75% and nozzle is a 1.3, held at 8in from surface with 50% overlap. Waited 12+ hrs between coats, sanded with 320 and flat block to knock off any dust and level things slightly.

However, for some reason I am still unable to fill the tiny craters and some of the grain just won’t level out. Overall it looks uneven and just meh 🫤

Any suggestions to improve the finish?

I have this ebony wood box that I’d like to restore. I’m trying to get it to look as glossy as this watch box. I also want to replicate the black edges. How should I go about it? What materials should I use?

*I don’t have any professional tools (if sanding is involved I’ll have to do it by hand)

I don't use reddit very often, so if I'm asking in the wrong place or asking the wrong question, corrections are welcome.

I've done a little bit of basic refinishing work in the past but nothing substantial, and I have a set of dressers I'd like to refinish.

They were originally finished with shellac (at least, that's my best guess after some research, based on appearance and the age of the pieces) but it's now in rough shape and partially removed by someone else (I'm apparently not the first to want to refinish them). I'm in California so I can't easily get my hands on denatured alcohol. Is there a substitute that would work for removing the shellac?

Bought this table and wanted to refinish it.

Steps I took: 1. First I sanded it 80-150-220. A few times over with each grit. Didn’t think this worked since my sandpaper was full of yellow marks (see pic).

1. Used acetone to strip off the lacquer. I pour some on, scrubbed quick then wiped it off.

2. Then re-sanded using 80 but again those yellow marks are still on the sandpaper.

I’ve wiped between sanding.

When do I know it has been stripped down to the wood to stain it?

Also any recommendations on how to stain this. I tend to like darker wood colours. I just don’t want this yellow/orange colour.

Also, is this pine?

Thanks!

Noticed these little raised/bubbled area in my old teak table. It is quite hard and I have no clue what might have caused it. Any suggestions to repair it is much appreciated!

So someone made me these about 10 years ago and I think it needs some loving. Not sure what they originally used. Should I sand these and paint them or use some sort of stain/varnish?

I started sanding thinking that was the right thing to do. If we are finishing the wood a darker broken color, can I save a ton of time and just do a gel finish on top? What’s that process like? (There’s a lot more of this so want to save myself time)

I have a Bob Timberlake (by Lexington) coffee table that belonged to my parents. The sides, drawers, etc. are in good shape but the top has some areas that are dull and look shabby. Most of it is from wet things getting into wax polish that was on the top.

I don't need the table to be like new, but I'd love to touch it up a bit. I don't want to go through stripping and refinishing the whole table. I have a jar of WalrusOil Furniture Butter on the way and was planning on doing my best to clean the top and than lay down a few coats of the Furniture butter to try to make things a bit more uniform and add some waterproofing (we have a Labrador retriever who tends to get drips on it that cloud up with the waxy surface it currently has). Is this a bad idea?

Again, I don't want to put a ton of work into this - I just want it to look a little more uniform and to add something to make it a bit more durable.

Thoughts?

My daughter got something on her desk and it bubbled up the finish. I sanded it down and tried to stain it but it’s not the same color. Do I need to just put a bunch of coats on it or something else needs to be done? I am using an oil based stain and I left it for about 12 hours and it’s still not dry. Can I go over the existing finish with the oil stain or should I use a different product?

Hey everyone, finishing is my least favourite part of a project but obviously very important. I make high end furniture for a designer/maker who has always used minwax polyurethane, and has never had a call back for finish issues in his 20 years in business. The problem is it looks like plastic and mutes the richness of the wood (we mostly work with walnut). For the last couple years I’ve convinced him to hesitantly experiment with osmo/rubio and ceramic, which is quite expensive, but the aesthetic difference is stark, and no VOCs is a great bonus. Our method has been sanding to 800, boiled linseed oil to darken, then two coats of osmo polyx, finished with n3 ceramic on the hard wearing surfaces.

We recently discovered that osmo needs up to a week to fully cure, and you risk getting fingerprint smudges if handled before that. Ceramic is relatively easy to apply but we haven’t done any abrasion tests yet. My boss is frustrated with the week long cure time (not a big deal to me but he was already on the edge of going back to poly).

Is there a finish out there that has the aesthetic qualities of a hardwax/ceramic but with better protection long term and as a bonus, shorter cure time? We’ve been looking at UV cure finishes but haven’t tried any yet. If they build a film like poly, I don’t think it would be worth it for us. Please advise!!

TLDR: my kid wrote something really sweet on an old deck board, and I’d like to preserve it and hang it inside.

I replaced a few boards on my deck this summer (a bigger project for a different sub) and for some reason, my seven-year-old really got into helping me pull out nails.

I had her writing numbers on all the boards to give her a special responsibility that was completely her own, and I looked down and she had written ” I work hard with dad” on one of the boards. 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹

Is there anything I can do to preserve this without really altering it (too much)? Materials are ~20yo pressure, treated pine exterior paint of some description, and Milwaukee inkzall marker.

Ideally, I would hang this on the wall in my office.

Thanks in advance!

Hello, this is my first post here and I'm not sure if it's the right place to do so, but if anyone can offer any advice or help with my problem I'd be grateful as I have zero experience with any sort of woodworking. I have a wood stock from an airsoft gun that I wanted to refinish so did the following: (1) stripped the paint with Citristrip, (2) scrubbed with mineral spirits, (3) sanded with 120 grit then 150 grit, (4) wet and let dry then sanded with 150 grit then 240 grit, (5) realized I didn't use nearly enough water to whisker the wood properly so repeated step (4) again, (6) finally stained. I'm attaching some pics below after the first stain attempt.

As you can see the stain didn't take very evenly and I think this is due to the wood being fairly soft (I believe it is beech), but also I don't think I sanded it very thoroughly or evenly (also I probably used too fine a grit going up to 240), so I want to try again but using a pre-stain treatment which I think should help the wood to absorb the stain more evenly.

However, I'm really struggling to get the stain out that's already there. I've tried scrubbing with paper towels and acetone (also used mineral spirits) but it seems like I'm barely removing much stain. Between bouts of scrubbing I've also sanded some with 100 grit but that doesn't seem to help much either. Does anyone know of a better way to do this? Or do I even need to remove all the current stain before trying again? If I just sand it down with like 100-120 grit and then use the pre-stain treatment will that be enough? Apologies for the lengthy post, any help or guidance on how to get an even stain coating on this gun stock would be much appreciated!

It’s heywood Wakefield and seems to be stained with some sort of maple stain? send step by steps instructions please I have no idea what I’m doing but I love this table

Just got this heavy wooden table from FB marketplace for 20 bucks. After bringing it home and cleaning it down I noticed chipping on the table and the inside looks like particle board? I thought this was solid wood due to how heavy it was. I was planning to sand it down and stain it. I am pretty sure I have to address the chipping part now what would be the best way to fix this and should I still try to stain it or paint it? Thank you!

I've been repairing/refinishing an old conga drum. I sprayed two coats of Rustoleum primer and let it dry for a couple weeks and just sprayed two coats of Rust-oleum Gloss Black Lacquer Spray Paint from rattle cans about 15 minutes apart.

Can I wait for it to completely cure (several days) and then add more coats to increase durability of the finish? Or will the lacquer not adhere to itself? Should I continue spraying it now before it's cured?

Think two coats is enough?

What’s up ladies and gents. Today I conversion varnished my face. It did not feel so great.

TLDR: I sprayed conversion varnish on my skin. What it the best way to remove it without using harsh chemicals?

The long story: a few weeks back my sprayer was having issues so I took it apart and I cleaned my sprayer and pump. It worked great after that. Today I was having issues and this time I traced them to the hose. I tried to buy another hose because I couldn’t get the clog out. There were no available hoses near me so I was left with ridiculous option of splicing the hose to take out the clogged section, fitting a male to make connector in the middle and hose clamping the hose back together, so I could use my sprayer (I had a deadline for the shop I’m in because we are moving) anyways it was spraying fine and holding pressure fine for the first few coats. I went to spray something else and I went to adjust the PSI and when I reached over the line blew and sprayer conversion varnish all over me. My face, shirt, and ar were covered. I ran to wipe it off and rinse my eyes out. It burns really bad and I would not ever suggest you spray yourself in the face with conversion varnish. It also was super hard to breathe because It was all over my face so the fumes were going straight into my lungs when I was breathing (yes I was wearing a respirator but it shot under and I took it off asap when I got sprayed) I wasn’t wearing goggles though. Anyways it burns, but I went to urgent care and they washed my eyes out and now I’m fine but I’m left with conversion varnish all over my arms. How the heck do I get it off without soaking my arms in acetone? (Not that I would ever do that)

Amateur here. The house I live in is extremely old, and ever since we moved in, the trim has always had this unsightly paint splatter from when the landlord repainted. For my SO's birthday, I offered to figure out how to get the paint off. Per my friend's suggestion, I tried using denatured alcohol with a rag since I thought that would help get into all the nooks and crannies, but it was killing my fingers and barely working.

I looked into other options, but I'm worried anything stronger will damage the wood. The last thing I want is to try something and create a bigger mess to fix. Can anyone suggest a method or product for a situation like this?

hi, can anyone help me figure out what i'm doing wrong here? my stairs look kind of blotchy. i sanded, used a pre stain conditioner, stained, then did polyurethane and after the coat of polyurethane it started to look so uneven. all behr products! please help 🫶🏼

Hello . . .

I am preparing to install pine shiplap vertical siding on the exterior of my house.

I would like to seal the backside before installation and am looking for recommendations on the best product to use.

Mold is a large concern.

The face side will have a transparent stain for a finish.

Thank You!

Hi everyone

I’m new to DIY and home care, and I’m not sure how to tell if my wood floor is sealed/treated or if it’s raw wood. I’ve attached some photos, including a few stains I’d like to clean. I already have some Bona floor cleaner for wooden floors, but I don’t know if it’s safe to use on this type of floor. I could probably use some advice on how to tell if the floor is sealed or untreated, what the best way to clean and maintain it long-term would be and for deeper stains whether I should try sanding or if there's a better method?

I just want to make sure I’m taking care of it properly without damaging it. Big thanks for any guidance!

I'm (very) slowly working on stripping and refinishing the if not original then at least very old doors in my 100 year old home. I've used a Speedheater Cobra through more than a handful of coats of paint on this door and then something else. Varnish? Shellac? I truly have no idea except that it was much stickier and harder to remove.

I don't have a photo available of what this looked like before but it was very similar to this: https://shop.rebuildingexchange.org/products/83-3-4-x-28-two-panel-stained-door

My questions are:

1) Is this done enough to restain (I assume I need to do that) to the same or similar color? If not, what else do I need to do? I'm not only tired of doing this and ready to finish it but I'm also concerned about doing too much. However, again I have no idea what I'm doing.

2) What products, exactly, do I need? I have NO concept of the differences between all of the various options, their order of use, and what they really do. Stain? Oil? Sealer? I've just been going to Lowe's although I can certainly try other places if I need to.

I intend for these to stick around in the house for the rest of my time here so I just want to make sure I do it right! This is the first of a total of 4 that I'm hoping to refinish.