door refurbish

[Cuprager]

Hi All,

I have just had my internal pine paneled doors chemically stripped to rid them of many many years worth of gloss paint... i have the doors back now but they are not in the condition that i was hoping for! I was hoping to have a nice clean pine colour that i could varnish. What i actually have is a darker colour which isnt particularly attractive. The person at the strippers said that they had been stained mahogany at some point, hence the dark pigmentation. Granted the doors are still drying out and some of the discolouration on them is due to them still being damp.

Now for the questions!

Once the doors have fully dried, do you think that sanding them with say, a belt sander, to remove a few mm from them would bring the finish up any better? Would anyone have any suggestions for revitalising them? Or should i go buy a tin of gloss paint!!?? :o)

I dont have a belt sander, i was looking at this one from machine mart...

do you think this would fit the bill?

How nice a finish would the belt sander give? Would i need to hand sand / orbital sand etc after belting?

TIA

Gerry

[Rob Morley]

Do you mean dipped in a vat of caustic soda? If so they'll probably never look very good.

[bigcat]

to be expected. the stripper eats out all the glue, the doors crack apart, the wood surface is degraded...

have you tried cleaing them up with a mop and dilute bleach? Sounds like you dont have much to lose.

Was dipping cheaper than new doors?

NT

[Stuart Noble]

You need hydrogen peroxide. You can get this from agricultural suppliers if you live in the country, or as woodworking bleach from Rustins, Mylands, Bolloms and others. Protect eyes, hands. It will undo any discolouration due to caustic dipping but won't touch pigmentation.

[Cuprager]

It was caustic soda. I have seen examples of this in a neighbors house where the doors came up really nicely... theirs must not have been stained in the past i guess!

Dipping = £25 / New door to same standard = £much more than 25 quid!

Does anyone have any ideas if sanding them would have much impact or should i just re-paint them properly?

TIA

[Rob Morley]

Hot air gun and scraper, followed by Nitromors and wire wool - a bit of effort but a lot safer.

Try one and see, but from the sound of it you're going to need to paint them and even that may be problematic.