Refinishing a piece of furniture - your advice please

[Dick Snyder]

A few years ago I made an oak dresser to match some existing furniture in the bedroom. The furniture is now replaced by new furniture with a darker cherry finish. When I did the oak dresser I put on some stain to match the old furniture and two coats of poly. I would like to refinish the dresser I made but it will be very hard to sand off the poly due to the shape of the drawers (not simple flat surfaces). Do I have any choices or must I get that poly off? I would like to put on a dye to cover up the oak grain as best I can but I doubt I can just put that down on poly. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

TIA.

Dick Snyder

[Fred]

Well: there's always paint.

[LEGEND65]

It won't be that bad getting thru the poly, you can get rubber blocks for sanding the profiles, such as these:

a strip of 60 grit equal to the length of the block, wrap it around starting at one end of the strip. Then you just shift the paper over a bit frequently. Inside corners are the only real problem.

Be a lot more fun to make a new one though.

[Fred the Red Shirt]

You can also add dye to poly, almost the same thing as paint.

I've read that water-based dyes tend to fade over time, but by then you may have changed furniture yet again.

[JOE MOHNIKE]

Use a good quality paint remover, follow instructions on container. Use various scrapers, fine brass brushes etc. to get into the difficult areas. Wipe everything down with Laquer Thinner, and then wipe down with a mild solution of liquid dish soap and water, followed by a clear rinse. Sand as needed and then stain.

If you have used any product like Pledge or something similar, it has left a coating on the surface which make applying any type of oil stain, polyshade etc.almost impossible and you need to take it down to the wood.

[dicksnyder]

Thanks. Some of those rubber blocks should get into the curved edges of the front that I will have to deal with. I will give them a shot.

[Jim Weisgram]

"Toning" is a finishing technique where you spray a dye or pigment stain over a film finish, to adjust the color. You then put another coat of finish over the color layer. Spraying is recommended to get even results. You can get fine control over the color because the wood is already sealed.

If I was going to attempt it, I would put alcohol based dye in dewaxed pale shellac and spray it over what you have now, followed by another coat of poly. You can add the shellac in thin coats until you get where you want to go.

On the other hand, pigment based stains will mask the grain more than dye will. I'd put a washcoat of dewaxed shellac first before putting the color layer on, to get good adhesion, and another before putting the poly on.

Regardless of the approach I'd try to make up some sample boards first, finished the same as the original finish, then try adding the toner.

[dicksnyder]

Thanks for your detailed posting Jim. I especially like the idea of making up some sample boards before I commit myself to the actual dresser. I like even more the thought of not having to sand that poly off given the shape of the drawer fronts.

Dick Snyder