Woodwork – A New Project
With the bike projects and car projects slowing down a bit I’ve decided to go back to working on a few furniture projects. I’ve got a few in mind already, a couple for myself and one I’m designing for a friend and his dogs but first on the list is restoring this old chest of drawers.
Currently I have a modern flat pack chest of drawers and it’s really in a bad way so when I was offered this piece by my sister I couldn’t turn it down. She was going to break it down and throw it away so I went over and collected it to save it from the tip. It turns out it was actually the chest of drawers that my parents had in their room and (I believe) it originally came from another family member further down the line. It’s a good sturdy unit but it needs some work to get it back to it’s former glory!
The first job is going to be stripping back all the paint my sister layered on to make it fit her decoration. My weapon of choice is a can of Nitromors and a scraper. It used to be quite potent stuff but it seems with current laws and legislations we get a weaker version now so it takes a bit more work (and product) to achieve the results you want. I followed the instructions and applied a thick coat, leaving it for around ten minutes before applying another coat and leaving for another thirty to forty minutes. After that amount of time the stripper had worked it magic and ate it’s way through most of the paint.
The scraper cut through most of the paint but there were some stubborn areas that required more work. Once the majority of the paint had been removed with a scraper I broke out the wire wool and gave the first drawer a rub down which cleaned everything up nicely. Hiding under the paint is a nice little cut out for a handle to be mounted and a brass lock. It’s a lovely dark wood too which after a good sand and a generous dosing of varnish should look rather nice.
I managed to get the top two drawers done today but starting late in the day I ran out of day light so I’m having to leave the rest for later in the week. I’m looking forward to the finished result!
Function 88 