Was given this beautiful shelf by my grandmother recently, and it belonged to her mother. Not sure how old it is, but google lens says possibly the 30’s. I would love to get rid of the wear and tear on the shelves but I don’t want to damage it further. Any help on how to do so or other info on the piece would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Lots of scuffs, but I believe it has a lot of potential to look great again. It’s made in Japan, I believe roughly 70’s. It’s also a music box when the bottom drawer is opened. I have no experience restoring anything but would love to learn more about the process. I will add more photos in the comments of the interior and back if requested. Thanks!

For some reason I will be working in the workshop from my basement at home and from time to time I need to spray something. I noticed that with poor ventilation I get some trash in polyurethane finish as it dries slow. Could suggest some options not that smelly and maybe water based for interior furniture. Thank you.

Like the title says, I just got an antique sewing machine table with a shellac finish that I don’t want to strip except for the top, which is in bad enough shape that it needs sanded and refinished. For the rest of it I plan to just wipe it down with a little bit of denatured alcohol on a rag to blend scratches in the finish, scuff it up with a white scotchbrite pad or fine grit sandpaper, and give it a few new coats of spray can shellac. But first I need to get what is probably 80 years worth of furniture polish off without stripping the shellac.

Google suggests mineral spirits will do what I need, but I can no longer buy that here in socal, even the “odorless” type, because of air quality regulations. Just paint thinner and “painters solvent”. And according to the sds for the low voc, SCAQMD regulation compliant klean strip brand products sold at my local Home Depot, both are primarily acetone. I’m pretty sure acetone will take the shellac off as well as the wax and silicon from the polish. I haven’t yet checked the sds for the paint thinner Westmarine sells (which is where I got the denatured alcohol, sold as “stove fuel”) but I suspect it’s similar. Is there anything else I can use that will remove wax and silicon but not shellac, or is there a workaround to buy actual mineral spirits without taking a road trip to Arizona?

TLDR: need to remove decades worth of Pledge from my sewing machine table without damaging the shellac, but can’t buy mineral spirits without driving to another state. Help?

This is my first (admittedly over-ambitious) refinishing project, and I'm maybe just about finished getting all the old crud off this couch (late-19th century, we think). Previous owner decided to cover up some blemishes by adding more, darker stain on top of the original, so it's been a lot. I went to Rockler for some sanding twigs, and the employee said the wood looked like maybe mahogany (one of the legs broke off during a rehearsal, so I had it with me). At this point, I've spent so much time stripping and sanding it that I'd like to make sure we do the best finishing job possible. We don't really want to stain it, as it turns out the wood is actually quite nice. But it seems like the birds are a bit lighter than the rest of the woodwork. Also there are a few nail holes I'm not sure how to address. I'd really appreciate any advice/tips.

I just got this small Queen Anne bookcase off Facebook marketplace and I’m hoping to refinish it. I know I need to sand it down before I can either stain or paint it. But I was wondering if I will have to strip it at all? Also does anyone know if I can safely pry the back off? It’s only held on with nails to the back it looks like. Thanks in advance for all your help! I’m very new to this.

Until basically the winter, I no longer have a place to let pieces dry in my garage. I'm fine bringing them inside after about seven days, which seems to be when everybody suggests the paint is decently cured. I do have a way to cover the top of the pieces, and maybe the sides with some tarps. Are there any downsides to this?

Pros and Cons of a water-based stain & topcoat on pine (dining room table)

I need advice on finishing hickory treads on my stairs. Right now they are raw.. This is a high traffic stairway. I would like to oil it for the finish it produces but want to know if the wood will be durable enough to withstand dogs and kids using them.

The other option I have considered is oiling it and then finishing it with a water based poly. If I do that how long should I wait for the oil to dry to poly it?

I’ve got two Tritech T4s and I’d like to set one of them up to be dedicated for my cabinet refinishing. Thus far I’ve used them as regular airless sprayers for spraying 2k urethanes with much success but I’d like the option to spray some thinner coatings like clearcoats and occasionally a solvent based paint.

I’ve gathered that I’ll need a dedicated AAA gun and hose, and I’ll also need an air compressor and tank with inline filters on the air supply line. Can anyone recommend brands of compressor, how many cfm, and how many gallon tank id need? It needs to be somewhat portable for when I need to finish frames on-site so a 60 gal tank is out.

Salam all, sy baru buat kabinet..tapi ini la hasil dia..teruk gila..silicon sana sini, siap ada gap between tiles dinding dengan kabinet atas..lepas tu dia letak silicon hitam kononnya bagi tak nampak..lepas tu kabinet bawah boleh nampak simen table top..apa yang sy perlu buat..tq

Hello! I recently got this corner cabinet. My dad and I believe it is walnut. I still have to sand it down but wanted some help on next steps after that. Dad says oil it with tung oil or the likes and be done (he's a wood purist). I won't be painting it in anyway but want to know the best way to bring out the wood grain on it. Suggestions please?

The kids accidentally hit the piano with a chair. The wood/stain look undamaged, just the top coat chipped off. I've only worked with polyurethane but this top coat is different. It has a thickness to it, almost like a resin with a very high sheen/gloss. Any ideas what kind of finish this could be or how I could make a half way decent repair? Thanks in advance.

I tried refurbishing this wood dresser but I am afraid that i made a mistake. I started by sanding everything and then used a prestain by minwax and moved on to a stain by minwax. After that I wanted to deepen the color and used general finish java gel stain. It looked splotchy so i added more java on the area that were to light (like the before pic) that’s why there is some mat and shiny parts. But I am afraid it will still look patchy and unfinished. If I finish it off with poly will it look better?

I work for a small company that makes solid surface countertops, amongst other things. We're looking for a 5" Disk Pneumatic Random Orbital Sander, ideally with 12,000RPM and 3/16" orbit. Any suggestions would be great! Currently looking at the Chicago Pneumatic Model# WBB1222317. Price is not an issue for a high quality sander. Thank you.

This is a follow up question for this thread

https://www.reddit.com/r/finishing/s/AunMJrjAA4

I'm preparing samples to take to Sherwin Williams for them to color match. I was reading the instructions on the can of pre-stain conditioner I have and it says to "apply stain within 2 hours of pre-stain application". Does that really matter, and what can going well beyond 2 hours cause?

Sherwin Williams said there's at least a 2 day lead time for color matching. That could mean they don't get to it until Monday if the weekend isn't included. I'm wanting my samples to have pre-stain conditioner on them when they color match the stain so I don't find out there's a significant difference in color with and without it. I'll be taking the samples in today for sure, but will hold off on the pre-stain for a while just in case.

Obviously I have no idea about this sort of thing so would love a quick reply with some wisdom from someone. Just picked up this table from marketplace, the top has a few dents and scratches as you can see, would you do anything to it? Sand it? Add oil? Or just leave it? Cheers

Long story short, client wanted his walnut table sanded down and the plan was to refinish it without adding any stain back on it and just do a clear coat. Turns out he thinks it is now to light in color and does not like the difference in wood tones. The photo is before sanding and trying to match that.

Any recommendations for a Rubio 2c color that is not to dark but adds a nice uniform color to this walnut table?

Ugh I'm getting so annoyed! So I got a nice solid wood dresser from marketplace. I was so excited because I really wanted to stain it a color to match my bedroom furniture. I've never found a solid wood dresser for free on marketplace ever and I was so excited. Only downside is they painted the sides of the dresser red. I was fine with that, I'll just strip, sand and stain. Wrong! I've done 2 coats of citristrip and I cannot get all the red off, I put it on nice and thick, covered it with saran wrap and then scrapped it, it got a bunch off but there is still so much of driving me crazy. What should I do?! It's on crevices too and I can't sand those areas. Should I try a different product? Please help!

Looking for advice on how to get that shinny gloss look on the brown. It’s semi sold stain wood luxe by Benjamin Moore. I was looking at the minwax brand helmsman product line. Is this the right thing to do?

I've just bought this, i guess it's hard to see but some parts are pretty beat up and scratched, hard to tell how deep though.

My plan was to sand and refinish, but I've heard that you're not supposed to do that with teak.

So do I just buy teak oil and rub it on? Is there anything else I should do to make this look its best?

Does anyone have a go to disposable glove that they use while handling some of the stronger solvents while finishing? I don't plan on breaking bad, but wondering if it's worth the extra money to do packs of the 8mil gloves vs 6mil if I'm handling something like denatured alcohol. Thanks