The great furniture refinishing experiment of fall 2011 continues . . .
After cleaning, patching (dog chew marks on one corner?), and sanding the disassembled parts, things start coming together to look like a chair again after the bits and pieces of the frame are glued and clamped.
After the glue dried the frame was feeling sturdy again. No more soft, wiggly joints! Additional sanding removed minor scuffs and scratches, and taking it all the way up to 400 grit left the frame feeling incredibly smooth.
Taking the whole operation outside, we applied several applications of teak oil with microfiber rags. The oil really brings out the grain and deep red color of the teak frame. These chairs are going to be beautiful!
Like a good TV chef, I did some prep work off camera. Thought the vinyl was in great shape, the 50+ year old plywood seats had started to delaminate underneath. We carefully removed the outer-most peeling lamination and then made a template of the seat bottom. At work one early morning, I used our shop and cut masonite boards to fit the seat so we could re-laminate the bottom and provide some additional stability.
After applying liberal amounts of wood glue to the new seat bottom, we clamped around the perimeter of the seat and left it overnight to dry. I am not actually sure how this will hold up in the long run, but if this can give the chairs a second life without having to re-upholster new seats, I think we are getting our money's worth on the investment.
Fortunately for us, the design of the chairs features another panel underneath the frame with the manufacturer's stamp. Had the stamp been imprinted directly on the bottom of the seat, it would have delaminated with the outer layer as described above and we would have lost a bit of the chairs authenticity. Here I am putting a clear coat on that additional panel to help preserve the branding stamp. We will be able to re-mount this board to the bottom of the chair once the seat is attached.
No comments:
Post a Comment