Our table has a factory-applied lacquer finish over a dark, walnut stain. Over many years, the table has been polished many times with a liquid furniture polish,
Yesterday, I brushed MinWax Fast-Drying polyurethane on the table. After the polyurethane dried, a very white "haze" and a lot of small bubbles developed under the polyurethane (most likely a reaction between the polyurethane and the underlying furniture polish).
Now, how can I remove the polyurethane and the polish so I can re-apply the polyurethane?
Some pretty good advice and alternate techniques here:
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you have been using the silicone type polish, after you remove the finish you should plan on sanding and cleaning with lacquer thinner or something like acetone before resealing. One invisible blotch of that stuff under the finish and you will a problem.
some of the off-the-subject comments, a number of good suggestions remain. However I don't know which would yield the results I'm looking for so I'll re-state my situation:
The Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane was applied over many years' of liquid furniture polish (like Pledge, Old English, etc) which is on top of the original, factory-applied lacquer (?) finish and dark, walnut stain.
How can I remove only the polyurethane and the polish so the original lacquer and stain remain?
some of the off-the-subject comments, a number of good suggestions remain. However I don't know which would yield the results I'm looking for so I'll re-state my situation:
The Minwax Fast-Drying Polyurethane was applied over many years' of liquid furniture polish (like Pledge, Old English, etc) which is on top of the original, factory-applied lacquer (?) finish and dark, walnut stain.
How can I remove only the polyurethane and the polish so the original lacquer and stain remain?
With a dental drill and a good magnifier and far, _far_ more patience than I have.
You're not going to find a stripper that will selectively remove polyurethane but not lacquer.
If you're willing to risk damaging the lacquer you could try a card scraper--if you're _very_ lucky the accumulated furniture polish might act as a release compound and let the polyurethane peel off without a lot of fuss. Trouble is that it's easy to dig too deep and may be difficult to see where the poly ends and the lacquer begins.
The bottom line on this is that unless the piece is a very, _very_ valuable antique you're going to be better off to just strip the whole thing and refinish.
Wet sand it down Gary. Use a very fine paper like 600 grit or so and plan on spending some time at it. If you look carefully as you progress your way through the layers, you should see when you get through the poly and to the factory lacquer. You will see "edges". Don't worry if you get slightly into the factory lacquer. It won't hurt it. In fact if you took all of the poly off and found yourself slightly into the factory finish across the entire table top, you could then switch to a much finer paper like 1200 or
1500 and follow that with a buffer and find yourself staring at a nice factory looking finish again. (Assuming the factory finish was not all dinged up, etc.).
Use a sanding block so that you get even distribution of pressure. Don't try to sand by hand or you will end up with high spots and low spots. Maybe even digs in the finish. Also - 600 is about as coarse as you'd want to go on a finish. Be careful as you can burn through quicker than you might think. Take the time to watch how it is going. Wet sanding finishes, no matter what they are on, is a practice in patience. You're finessing a piece of work. Finally - it's ok to cuss a bit while wet sanding.
You changed the parameters. I agree with Mr. Clark... there is no way to selectively remove finish in your case. The combination of non compatible finishes compromised by whatever was in the furniture polish has you up against it. The original finish was indeed probably lacquer and your polish didn't react to it since it was forumlated (as are most furniture products) to be compatible with lacquer.
But when you put your coat of plastic on it (poly) the shining agents and the stuff they use to make it feel slick and easy to dust were probably silicones of some kind, and probably some kind of oil. This is what compromised your finish.
I have never seen Mr. Marlow's advice anything but spot on, and he certainly has helped me. However... if you want to wet sand off polyurethane, be my guest. If you do, you will have a really smooth surface and you won't know when you have cut away all the poly and polish unless you get some really nice witness lines. That may or may not happen. And you won't know for sure if you get all the bad stuff off, which could leave some behind to sabotage your future finish efforts.
So, for me it would be strip, sand, wash coat conditioner lightly sanded, stained/toned to match, then seal. And no more furniture polish. Good finishes dont' need polish. Clean them with a barely damp rag of a plain duster and quit.
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