I have various bits of furniture which are heavily stained... either unvarnished with water stains, where the varnish is peeling off, or where someone has put a newspaper on top and the print has transferred to the surface. I think they're all veneered (one bizarrely appears to be mahogany with different mahogany veneer on top, though I suspect the rest are ply). They're nothing to write home about - but I'd like to change them from 'decrepit' to 'inconspicuous'. There will still be broken bits, cigarette burns, etc that I can't completely fix, so they certainly won't be Antiques Roadshow material.
So I'm thinking of sanding off the varnish/stains and refinishing them. But what would be the best product to treat them with? Varnish or some kind of oil/polish? It would be nice if they were cup-ring-proof, but I'm not expecting any kind of amazing surface (again, it's just bad veneer underneath).
Is power sanding a sensible way to approach this? Bear in mind that I don't want to spend a long time doing it, so a relatively quick method would be good (after all, it'll be a waste of effort as the furniture isn't that great to start with). Would that likely get out water stains that have soaked in?
Reading the archives, it appears that varnish clogs sanders and people recommend scraping with a heat gun... but would that damage the veneer?
Any other suggestions?
Thanks Theo