Sometimes things come up and we have to walk away from a project and plan on coming back to it on another day.
Two weeks ago, I wrote about stripping and sanding the top of our kitchen table. The next day, I got a little work done staining and sealing the top. Since then, with weather and work, I haven’t been able to get much else done.
The day after I stripped and sanded the top. I stained the top with some Sherwin-Williams Chestnut BAC Wiping Stain (I couldn’t find a link to the product on their website) left over from some previous projects. I like this stain, but it is solvent-based and dries fast, so it can be a little tricky. Basically, you wipe it on, and 10 minutes later, wipe it off. The instructions don’t recommend a second application. Top coat can be applied after an hour, I believe. After that I sealed the stain with a coat of Zinsser Shellac.
Shellac is an excellent under-coat, as it seals in many impurities that can cause problems in your finish coats.
I tinted some Mohawk E-Z Vinyl Sealer with Mohawk Ultra Penetrating Stain (Medium Mahogany), to try and match the color of the table base, that I wasn’t refinishing.
The vinyl sealer handles like lacquer and has to be sprayed on. I used an HVLP sprayer to apply it. I don’t have a spray room, so all of the finishing was done outdoors. Even still, I wore a respirator with organic vapor cartridges.
Two coats of the sealer went on the underside, but after one coat on the top side, I knew I had a small problem.
One of the main benefits of using a lacquer finish is that the fast drying time allows you to build a deep, rich finish. The drawback is that the fast evaporation of the solvents can cool the finish, allowing moisture to be drawn into the coating. This moisture shows up as a haze and is called blush. The solution is to add some lacquer retarder to your finish before you spray it. Of course, I didn’t have any on hand.
Fast forward a couple of weeks, and I had some time and good weather to get back to this project. I had acquired some lacquer retarder, and added a little to my remaining tinted vinyl sealer. I sprayed one more coat on the top side. As it dried, I could tell, the blush was gone. I followed up with a couple of coats of clear vinyl sealer on both sides of the table top, with a light sanding with 600 grit sandpaper between each coat.
(I apologize for a lack of pictures for this part of the project, but it doesn’t look too different from the finished product.)
This table goes in our dining area off our kitchen, where we eat all of our meals, so I wanted a final finish that could handle every day use. Pre-catalyzed lacquer has the same handling and appearance of standard lacquer, but is a more durable finish.
Pre-catalyzed lacquer has a short shelf-life, so I didn’t want to buy a lot, just to have it go bad before I could use any more. Mohawk sells their Pre-catalyzed Lacquer in aerosol cans, so that’s what I used.
I sprayed on two coats, top and bottom and let it dry overnight. The next day, I put the top back together and put it back on the table.
Here’s what it looks like, chairs and all.
The table top turned out really well. It’s not a storied antique, but it was a Christmas gift to my wife from a few years ago. I was disappointed with its condition after I got it down from the attic a few weeks ago. I’m really happy I could breathe some new life into it and put it to good use again.
