Hi, Don and i have been having more fun with our hobby. We enjoy
refinishing furniture. When we have too much, we freecyle it. We generally
are working on 'good bones' solid wood pieces. Its sanding the odd round
bit or the detail work that has me looking at the dremmel models.

If any have experience with them, could use some on which model to get. I
do not need the heavy duty professional level stuff.

cshenk wrote:
Hi, Don and i have been having more fun with our hobby. We enjoy
refinishing furniture. When we have too much, we freecyle it. We
generally are working on 'good bones' solid wood pieces. Its sanding
the odd round bit or the detail work that has me looking at the dremmel
models.

If any have experience with them, could use some on which model to get.
I do not need the heavy duty professional level stuff.


I have refinished a lot of antique furniture, not highly valuable, but I
would never sand it. Don't believe I ever have sanded antiques. I also
own a Dremel and have used it for lots of hobby and odd household work -
fixing rust on my old Buick and regrouting ceramic tile in our shower.
My battery operated Dremel has variable speed, which is very handy.

When I refinish furniture with grooves or carving, I scrub the paint
remover into the fine spots with whatever tool works. I slop it on
thickly first, let it work, then scrub it around - toothbrush on fine
detail, fine steel wool on flat surfaces. Dig with toothpicks or wood
skewers to get the gunk out of grooves and carvings - paint remover
softens wood, so I don't like to use anything harder. Unless there are
many coats of paint, I usually get the finish off with three
applications - one will get most varnish off, but a couple more get to
the last remnants of finish and most stain. I clean it all off with
rags, paper towels and finally, fine steel wool. Scrub with steel wool
and mineral spirits to get the stripper out. Let dry. The scrubbing
with steel wool has the effect of sanding, as far as removing fuzzies,
but I would hesitate to sand part of a piece of furniture for fear of
ruining the patina.

On Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:23:16 -0400, "cshenk" wrote:

Hi, Don and i have been having more fun with our hobby. We enjoy
refinishing furniture. When we have too much, we freecyle it. We generally
are working on 'good bones' solid wood pieces. Its sanding the odd round
bit or the detail work that has me looking at the dremmel models.

If any have experience with them, could use some on which model to get. I
do not need the heavy duty professional level stuff.


I have a Dremmel and I refinish furniture, but don't use a Dremmel to
do it. I sometimes mount a spindle on my lathe to strip off the old
finish. The abrasive rope (sold in woodworking shops) works well
getting into crevices. Power tools can quickly damage furniture
unless you are always careful.

On Aug 26, 6:49*pm, Phisherman wrote:
On Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:23:16 -0400, "cshenk" wrote:
Hi, Don and i have been having more fun with our hobby. *We enjoy
refinishing furniture. *When we have too much, we freecyle it. *We generally
are working on 'good bones' solid wood pieces. *Its sanding the odd round
bit or the detail work that has me looking at the dremmel models.

If any have experience with them, could use some on which model to get. *I
do not need the heavy duty professional level stuff.

I have a Dremmel and I refinish furniture, but don't use a Dremmel to
do it. *I sometimes mount a spindle on my lathe to strip off the old
finish. *The abrasive rope (sold in woodworking shops) works well
getting into crevices. *Power tools can quickly damage furniture
unless you are always careful.

I know little about antiques except the more they are screwed with the
less they are worth (gleaned from the Antiques road show).
Dremmels, though I have some experience with. For versatility try to
get a variable speed with a flex shaft, get a selection of collets,
get a big package of off brand tools for it cheap, so you can
experiment & see what works for you, then you can try to find a
quality version of the bits you use a lot. I still use most of the
cheap set, & never found anything I needed the best of except the cut-
off wheels.

"cshenk" wrote in
:

Hi, Don and i have been having more fun with our hobby. We enjoy
refinishing furniture. When we have too much, we freecyle it. We
generally are working on 'good bones' solid wood pieces. Its sanding
the odd round bit or the detail work that has me looking at the
dremmel models.

If any have experience with them, could use some on which model to
get. I do not need the heavy duty professional level stuff.



perhaps the oscillating sanders like the Fein Multimaster or it's Harbor
Freight "equivalent" would be better. Ryobi and others make similar
products,too.They're good for the detail sanding,all sorts of crevice
tools.

A Dremel can take off a LOT of wood or finish before you realize it.
Also,I've read the Dremel quality has dropped.

My old model 270 fixed speed Dremel is still running fine.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

"cshenk" wrote in message
...
Hi, Don and i have been having more fun with our hobby. We enjoy
refinishing furniture. When we have too much, we freecyle it. We
generally are working on 'good bones' solid wood pieces. Its sanding the
odd round bit or the detail work that has me looking at the dremmel
models.

If any have experience with them, could use some on which model to get. I
do not need the heavy duty professional level stuff.

Get a good one. Get a Foredom.

Steve

I agree with norminn completely. I've done restoration work for many years
and always use the least destructive procedures possible. One note: 'Fine'
meaning use #0000 (four-ought) steel wool, the finest generally available.

"Phisherman" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:23:16 -0400, "cshenk" wrote:

Hi, Don and i have been having more fun with our hobby. We enjoy
refinishing furniture. When we have too much, we freecyle it. We
generally
are working on 'good bones' solid wood pieces. Its sanding the odd round
bit or the detail work that has me looking at the dremmel models.

If any have experience with them, could use some on which model to get. I
do not need the heavy duty professional level stuff.


I have a Dremmel and I refinish furniture, but don't use a Dremmel to
do it. I sometimes mount a spindle on my lathe to strip off the old
finish. The abrasive rope (sold in woodworking shops) works well
getting into crevices. Power tools can quickly damage furniture
unless you are always careful.

I have a Foredom, which was a gift, and I dearly love it. Of course, I went
crazy and bought about $300 worth of bits for it. Then I got a $14.98 7,000
piece Chinese plastic case with tons of stuff in it. Guess which ones I use
the most................. Using an handpiece is tricky to say the least.
You can't beat them for some things, and for other types of work, they are
worthless.

Steve

Thanks all!

I will also look at the other tools out there. One minor confusion, this
isnt for 'antiques', but regular stuff. Generally mistreated bits that are
20 years old or near it. Confusion probably because I've mentioned I also
work on antiques but they are a whole nuther ballgame in how we do it!

Ryobi sounds like a possible path for our simple needs.

I used to help Don with the sanding for our hobby but we are both getting
older (VA just officially said I'm 50% disability). Nothing wrong with a
few simple tools suitable to keep enjoying a hobby!

Last project is kinda funny! Cheap ass pressboard 3 drawer dresser. The
kind you used to get at Kmart for 15$ in 1990. We used it to teach our 15YO
daughter how to paint furniture after proper stripping down and
undercoating. It's actually pretty cute in the garage in it's new cherry
red color!

It will go eventually maybe to a family that needs it, but might keep it as
one of her projects ;-) She learned staining but that was her first time
painting one alone.

"cshenk" wrote in message
...
Thanks all!

I will also look at the other tools out there. One minor confusion, this
isnt for 'antiques', but regular stuff. Generally mistreated bits that
are 20 years old or near it. Confusion probably because I've mentioned I
also work on antiques but they are a whole nuther ballgame in how we do
it!

Ryobi sounds like a possible path for our simple needs.

I used to help Don with the sanding for our hobby but we are both getting
older (VA just officially said I'm 50% disability). Nothing wrong with a
few simple tools suitable to keep enjoying a hobby!

Last project is kinda funny! Cheap ass pressboard 3 drawer dresser. The
kind you used to get at Kmart for 15$ in 1990. We used it to teach our
15YO daughter how to paint furniture after proper stripping down and
undercoating. It's actually pretty cute in the garage in it's new cherry
red color!

It will go eventually maybe to a family that needs it, but might keep it
as one of her projects ;-) She learned staining but that was her first
time painting one alone.

There are some good things to this economy. One is that people are selling
GOOD tools for GOOD prices. If one does have a lot of disposable income,
they can go out and buy really spendy stuff, but for a garage operator on a
budget, one can still enjoy quality equipment and not spend an arm and a
leg. There are lots of GOOD tools that aren't really expensive, as Ryobi
stuff. If you're not going to use it 8 hours a day 5 days a week, one can
get their money's worth out of it. And if one gets it at a yard sale for
cheap, so much the better. For all the rest of the "stuff", yard sales,
Harbor Freight, the Borg, and wherever will soon get you a nice setup that
will put out nice work.

I've always said it isn't the tools, it's the workman. Fifty and a hunnert
years ago, craftsmen cranked out some pretty nice stuff with what we
wouldn't consider using today. Spend all day on one newel or post when
today, we'd do it on a wood lathe in ten minutes. Same for planing and
sanding. A good craftsman can do good work with what he has to work with.
Others have thousands of dollars of stuff, and still don't grasp plumb and
level.

My two cents, anyway.

Have fun. I'm disabled and retired, but still manage to work my butt off.
Need to go fishing more. Yeah, right. Just as soon as I redo the woodwork
on the boat. And the upholstery. And the carpet. It never ends and
there's never enough time.

Or money.

Steve

In article ,
"cshenk" wrote:

Thanks all!

I will also look at the other tools out there. One minor confusion, this
isnt for 'antiques', but regular stuff. Generally mistreated bits that are
20 years old or near it. Confusion probably because I've mentioned I also
work on antiques but they are a whole nuther ballgame in how we do it!

Well, I'm still confused about respondents being alarmed over sandpaper.
My mom refinished a lot of antique furniture. Real antique furniture.
And she used sandpaper. I certainly don't think it caused any problems,
but then, I'm not talking about 60 grit on a belt sander, I'm talking
about hand sanding. She'd spend three hours every day on a piece, the
whole of a summer, doing it all by hand.

Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,
"cshenk" wrote:

Thanks all!

I will also look at the other tools out there. One minor confusion, this
isnt for 'antiques', but regular stuff. Generally mistreated bits that are
20 years old or near it. Confusion probably because I've mentioned I also
work on antiques but they are a whole nuther ballgame in how we do it!

Well, I'm still confused about respondents being alarmed over sandpaper.
My mom refinished a lot of antique furniture. Real antique furniture.
And she used sandpaper. I certainly don't think it caused any problems,
but then, I'm not talking about 60 grit on a belt sander, I'm talking
about hand sanding. She'd spend three hours every day on a piece, the
whole of a summer, doing it all by hand.

Sanding down to bare wood is considered by every authority I have ever
heard discussing it to reduce the value. "Sanding" with the very finest
sandpaper to smoothe a gloppy finish is one thing, still pretty unheard
of for fine antiques. If sanded to bare wood, the patina is removed and
you have put a NEW surface on an old piece of furniture.

"SteveB" wrote in
:

I've always said it isn't the tools, it's the workman. Fifty and a
hunnert years ago, craftsmen cranked out some pretty nice stuff with
what we wouldn't consider using today. Spend all day on one newel or
post when today, we'd do it on a wood lathe in ten minutes.

They had lathes back then,they were pedal-powered,though.
PBS used to have a woodworking show where the guy used only 1800's style
woodworking tools.


Same for
planing and sanding. A good craftsman can do good work with what he
has to work with. Others have thousands of dollars of stuff, and still
don't grasp plumb and level.

My two cents, anyway.

Have fun. I'm disabled and retired, but still manage to work my butt
off. Need to go fishing more. Yeah, right. Just as soon as I redo
the woodwork on the boat.

My dad always preferred wood boats,and he did a lot of woodwork and
refinishing on the 18ft Thompson we had.I used to help him.


And the upholstery. And the carpet. It
never ends and there's never enough time.

Or money.

Steve





--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

wrote in message
news
If sanded to bare wood, the patina is removed and you have put a NEW
surface on an old piece of furniture.

Amen!

"SteveB" wrote
"cshenk" wrote

Thanks all!
Ryobi sounds like a possible path for our simple needs.

There are some good things to this economy. One is that people are
selling GOOD tools for GOOD prices. If one does have a lot of disposable
income, they can go out and buy really spendy stuff, but for a garage
operator on a budget, one can still enjoy quality equipment and not spend
an arm and a leg. There are lots of GOOD tools that aren't really
expensive, as Ryobi stuff. If you're not going to use it 8 hours a day 5
days a week, one can get their money's worth out of it. And if one gets
it at a yard sale for cheap, so much the better. For all the rest of the
"stuff", yard sales, Harbor Freight, the Borg, and wherever will soon get
you a nice setup that will put out nice work.

Yup! I don't have a huge expendable income, but I'm not complaining. I use
it wisely and support local businesses when I can.

I've always said it isn't the tools, it's the workman. Fifty and a
hunnert

Absolutely! Don and i have done some really pretty pieces over time, out of
other folks botched 'attempted to fix the stain etc' sorts of things. One
we just got, a lovely little piece. Sort of a combination short credenza
and hall wall table sort of thing. Good bones underneath the truely ugly
orangy antiquing job on black walnut stain someone had tried. Got it for
10$ at a yardsale. It turned out to be solid cherry. Potentially a true
antique, the stain job was so bad there was no way to recover without
completely sanding down to bare wood.

Now that we have it stripped totally (some had to be done by hand, no tool
would be suitable this time due to the looks of the item and it's
construction), I'm going to google a bit for the *right* products to get to
finish this one off.

sanding. A good craftsman can do good work with what he has to work with.
Others have thousands of dollars of stuff, and still don't grasp plumb and
level.

Yup. Seen that plenty a time.

Have fun. I'm disabled and retired, but still manage to work my butt off.
Need to go fishing more. Yeah, right. Just as soon as I redo the
woodwork on the boat. And the upholstery. And the carpet. It never ends
and there's never enough time.

Grin, I hear ya. I'm still working full time but Don's truely retired now.

"Smitty Two" wrote
"cshenk" wrote:

I will also look at the other tools out there. One minor confusion, this
isnt for 'antiques', but regular stuff. Generally mistreated bits that
are
20 years old or near it. Confusion probably because I've mentioned I
also
work on antiques but they are a whole nuther ballgame in how we do it!

Well, I'm still confused about respondents being alarmed over sandpaper.
My mom refinished a lot of antique furniture. Real antique furniture.
And she used sandpaper. I certainly don't think it caused any problems,
but then, I'm not talking about 60 grit on a belt sander, I'm talking
about hand sanding. She'd spend three hours every day on a piece, the
whole of a summer, doing it all by hand.

Grin, she's right but you only strip that way when the finish is so damaged,
you have no choice (removes the patina). I have a piece like that here, in
fact 2 of them. We do in fact use a hand electric sander for the flat
parts, but with the appropriate grit.

We had to with the 100 year old rocking chair. It had to have portions of
the wood replaced (the square part placed in center of the seat frame in old
time furniture). We think it was American Chestnut? The 'patina' had been
damaged in too many places. It was even splashed with oil based paints in a
good portion of the back. We stained it with a quailty chestnut stain and
used toung oil on it. Now we are carefully beeswaxing it weekly.

The other one was a long ago project. It 'was' a dining credenza with
storage underneath in cabinet doors and a long drawer used for silverware
and such. Circa 1870. Someone tried to 'modernize' it in 1950 with updated
cabinet pulls and such and painted it black with green doors. Don stripped
it down (had to) back around 1997. It's solid oak, now stained nicely in a
sort of darkish oak It's been our TV entertainment center since then.
Lots of space to hold DVD's etc inside (grin).

The 3rd piece we are working on *slowly* is a 'side by side' (they don't
make them anymore and havent for about 100 years, at least not like this).
They were the device of the middle class trying to look a bit like
upperclass, but unable to afford the real thing. One side is a glass door
curio cabinet, the other side is a sort of mini secretary/desk with even a
fold down writing space and little boxes behind it to sort your pens and ink
and stationary. Below are 3 drawers, one of which has the old fashioned key
lock in brass. Above the 'secretary' is a heart shaped mirror in some
lovely hand tooled backsplash. The front of all 3 drawers were done in
golden-oak for contrast which we think a little odd, but it could be the
rest is as well and it was merely the stain that was the contrast. The
'side by side' was stored in a damp place for a time (not sure how long) and
some of the parts had to be replaced. Either way, this is a fantastic piece
which deserves patience and deliberation to restore to her former glory.

Hi Folks! An update.

Don found a sweet little 4.8v hand held unit, cordless rechargable. Dremmel
Model 754. Came with an extensive attachment kit (looks like about 50 pieces
in there). Dunno exactly what he paid but he said it wasnt bad.

This isnt a heavy duty tool, but we needed one like this for tons of small
lightweight jobs on relatively delicate woods where the bigger units would
chew things up. Like, my 100 year old shadowbox kitchen from germany (has a
kitchen inside, parts built at angle so the depth is neat to see). I can
use this to carve a new chair since one of them subsided pretty much beyond
repair. Once I get the chair right, I can put it in place.

We will still be looking at the Ryobi's as well as we also have a need for a
fairly heavy duty tool to strip rust off a fair amount of metal tools and
fishing equipment. They got damaged while in storage for 7 years.

Ok, lets face it. I wanted an excuse to get some new toys ;-) I know how
to insure it too! I'm getting Don a 100$ gift certificate at the local
Lowes for his birthday in October! Yeah! I bet I get lots of new toys too
since he's the sort who's happy to share with his wife |:-

Yeah, I'm a girl who drools over the tool section. Shoot me.

cshenk wrote:
Hi Folks! An update.

Don found a sweet little 4.8v hand held unit, cordless rechargable.
Dremmel Model 754. Came with an extensive attachment kit (looks like
about 50 pieces in there). Dunno exactly what he paid but he said it
wasnt bad.

This isnt a heavy duty tool, but we needed one like this for tons of
small lightweight jobs on relatively delicate woods where the bigger
units would chew things up. Like, my 100 year old shadowbox kitchen
from germany (has a kitchen inside, parts built at angle so the depth is
neat to see). I can use this to carve a new chair since one of them
subsided pretty much beyond repair. Once I get the chair right, I can
put it in place.

We will still be looking at the Ryobi's as well as we also have a need
for a fairly heavy duty tool to strip rust off a fair amount of metal
tools and fishing equipment. They got damaged while in storage for 7
years.

Ok, lets face it. I wanted an excuse to get some new toys ;-) I know
how to insure it too! I'm getting Don a 100$ gift certificate at the
local Lowes for his birthday in October! Yeah! I bet I get lots of new
toys too since he's the sort who's happy to share with his wife |:-

Yeah, I'm a girl who drools over the tool section. Shoot me.



We have his-and-hers tools ... his toolbox is like my purse, and if any
of my tools go into his toolbox, they disappear ) Live in condo, no
garage, so front closet and some creative storage schemes contain some
of his tools - wicker trunk in living room for huge wrenches and
pry-bars )

My mom used to build miniature rooms, 1/12 scale. She made some
fantastic things from scratch, perfectly to scale - my favorites are a
working floor loom and wicker porch furniture made with wire and linen
macrame string. A 100 y/o room would be interesting to see - mom had
lots of mini tools, including lathe. Inherited her Dremel and still use
it - drilled a hole in a teacup so I could use it as a little planter.
Re-grouted shower tile, cut out rust to do body work on the old Buick,
etc. If you have a full shop of standard-sized tools, you can always
start on mini's )

cshenk wrote:

(...)

We will still be looking at the Ryobi's as well as we also have a need
for a fairly heavy duty tool to strip rust off a fair amount of metal
tools and fishing equipment.

Let Reddy Watt do the heavy lifting WRT rust removal:
http://antique-engines.com/electrol.asp

I tried it. It works if you dry and coat the piece as soon as it is
derusted. If not, it will begin to rust immediately.

--Winston

"Winston" wrote
cshenk wrote:

We will still be looking at the Ryobi's as well as we also have a need
for a fairly heavy duty tool to strip rust off a fair amount of metal
tools and fishing equipment.

Let Reddy Watt do the heavy lifting WRT rust removal:
http://antique-engines.com/electrol.asp

Thanks but no. Don would freak at that used on his grandfather's fishing
lures! Naw, we'll just clamp and brush as normal.

cshenk wrote:
"Winston" wrote
cshenk wrote:

We will still be looking at the Ryobi's as well as we also have a
need for a fairly heavy duty tool to strip rust off a fair amount of
metal tools and fishing equipment.

Let Reddy Watt do the heavy lifting WRT rust removal:
http://antique-engines.com/electrol.asp

Thanks but no. Don would freak at that used on his grandfather's
fishing lures! Naw, we'll just clamp and brush as normal.

Just tryna be helpful.




--Winston