Got a call today from a prospective customer who has a houseful of maple cabinets in a dark chestnut color. She’s thinking of trying to strip and refinish them to lighten them up. During the conversation, we talked about the possibility that the cabinets were colored with an aniline dye and I realized that I’m not sure if strippers would work that well.
Anyone have any experience stripping dyed cabinets? I’ve never really used dye and want to give the customer good info when we meet.
Thanks
Replies
To answer your question, no. But I always found the best way to see if it will strip out ok is to find some of the cabinet which is unseen and just experiment.
Dave,
Dye doesn't come out with stripping, though the color may be a lot different than it looks now. I did some maple kitchen drawers the other day with a "spice" finish and the wood was pretty bright yellow once I got the finish off.
To remove the dye, use wood bleach. Jeff Jewitt has an article on the three types of wood bleach at this link - http://www.homesteadfinishing.com/htdocs/bleach.htm
Doing a sample shelf or similar item is a very good idea. It's a big job and maple isn't the easiest wood to get a nice looking finish on.
Paul
I suggested experimentation during our conversation and she's open to the idea. I have some maple scraps in the shop and I might make up some samples to play with as well. She was somewhat surprised when I told her that nothing would take the wood back to new.
We aren't certain about the aniline dye, but it's a definite possibility. These are mass produced cabinets in a fairly large tract of houses so who knows what the manufacturer used.
If they are "mass produced" stuff they are probably done with a catalyzed finish and will be almost impossible to "refinish"..sell her some new doors and dwr fronts that she will like...The time to strip and refinish will be more than starting from scratch...
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