*
I am working on a twenty-five year old cherry dining room table. The original finish cracked and peeled, exposing areas of bare wood. I think that the owner used a great deal of furniture polish on it. After stripping the old finish, washing down w/ mineral spirits and then denatured alcohol and then sanding through the stain, I’m getting fisheye. I have sanded to bare wood and restained the top three times. Once, I washed with amonia. Once, I sealed it with shellac wiped on with a rag. Once I tried it with two coats of spray can shellac. This last time, I tried putting fisheye eliminator in my waterlox original finish and it seems to have eliminated the fisheye, but resulted in an uneven and cloudy finish.
Does anyone have any suggestions other than using the table for firewood. I would , but it’s not my table – and it i a nice table.
Thanks,
Bear
Replies
*
Damn bear, you are having problems. Sounds like you might have a silicone overload, or your stripper has not been neutralised properly. Silicone is a bitch to shift. Try copious quantities of lacquer thinner. Flood and wipe off several times. It should remove a bunch of the silicone, and will also help neutralise any stripper should some remain. Also a wash of strongish vinegar and water will neutralise some strippers quite well, but it does raise the grain rather. If you have access to spray equipment I'd suggest you also consider vinyl sealer as a fallback. It's rather forgiving of silicone and other greasy type impurities on the surface. Sliante.
*Bear,The only things I can think of are:1) You should only use a couple drops of the fish eye eliminator, 2) Let the Waterlox dry for a couple more days...you may see the cloudiness go away, 3) Make sure you didn't put on too heavy of a coat, and 4) Make sure the humidity was relatively low when applying the finish.Good Luck,Bob
*Thanks.
*There is one other thing you can do that I have found helpful. If you read any books... bob flexner is a good source. He recommends and I have used this more than once, is to "dust" spray your finish for a few coats. Cut back on your fluid output and apply very light coats. The fish eye is the result of silicone repelling your lacquer. Kind of like when you have two magnets and you put them end to end with the same polarization. I would continue to use your fish eye repellant. Just make sure you are using it correctly. More is not always better. Light sanding between coats is helpful too. I recommend 400 grit.
*You may also want to try cleaning the top with TSP (trisodium phosphate) after you strip. This will also help remove the wax(from stripper) and silicone. It may darken the cherry some ,but a washing of white vinegar or oxalic acid will bring it back to the original color. Then go to the lacquer thinner washing as mentioned.
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled