refinishing sticky table top

[Charlie Hart]

My mother has a maple table that gets very sticky in the summer humidity. A furniture refinisher told me this was due to using a silicon furniture polish. To refinish they recommended

1. Use Formby's Face Lift to remove old surface
2. Naptha to clean
3. Tung oil for new finish.

Has anyone done this? Reading the package for Formby's Face Lift

appears it has its own finish, so I'm wondering where the naptha and tung oil come in - after the Formby's finish? Or do I just do the first step of the Face Lift & then the naptha & tung oil? Thanks for any help...charlie

[Preston Andreas]

I had a situation very similar to that. The polish they were using made the finish gummy in places and they wanted me to refinish it. I first washed it with TSP, scrubbed with mineral spirits, then lacquer thinner. I then sanded to wood and went through the cleaning again. With all that work, I knew I had it clean. I started spraying poly on the top and it started cratering, forming channels, showing fisheyes and everything else it shouldn't do. So, I sanded back to wood. This time, I sprayed a 2# cut of shellac on the table, scuff sanded it and followed with poly. This time it came out fine. Apparently, the polish had gone through the finish and soaked into the wood. No amount of cleaning or sanding was going to get it out of the wood. For something like this, you need a sealer coat of shellac or vinyl acrylic.

If the finish is gummy, it has been compromised and it has to be removed. I don't think the face lift will "restore" the finish in this instance. Since you aren't using film building finish such as varnish or lacquer, you probably won't have a problem. If too much polish has soaked in the table, I would be concerned about the oil finish curing properly.

It doesn't sound like the Formby's removes the finish. Rather, it cleans, compounds or polishes and applies some sort of finish. I have a feeling the finish is the same Tung Oil/varnish that he sells.

Preston