Can I Rescue My Table Top Wax Disaster

[stockonehundred]

Hi. I made a really stupid mistake by filling cracks in my table top made from recycled wood with dust and PVA. Stupid because it was finished with wax afterwards. I thought I'd sanded the residue left behind, around the cracks, but sadly not. What's most annoying is I realised the cracks would have been filled just as well with the wax itself, as I was doing it with homemade filler.... The wax I used also stained the wood teak, so fairly dark. The result being that around all the cracks the stain has not sunk in and I have unnatural looking patches, which I am unsure of how to deal with. I tried buffing the wax back further than normal in the hope that lightening the overall shade would allow the patches to blend in. This took a long time, hours, but I'm still left with unnatural looking patches around the cracks. Is this a start from scratch nightmare, or fixable?

Any help with a fix would be greatly appreciated. A nod for the start from scratch..... Well I guess I'll never do it again :/

 

[mrpercysnodgrass]

I'm afraid there is no way around this, you will have to take off the finish and sand through the filler that is in the grain. If the grain is very deep it might be better to scrub out the filler with a fine brass suede brush, or you could get a fine sable artists brush and paint over the filler with a dark brown/black acrylic oil paint.

 

[Jacob]

Belt sander

 

[stockonehundred]

Thanks both. I took off the wax with a drum attachment to my electric drill. My previous experience sanding off wax always clogged up the belts within a few strokes where the wax melted from the friction. This was Briwax and it came off no problem at all. Probably due to it being so fresh and only one coat. I've now sanded back the top, but have lost a lot of character in the process. It's made of old scaff boards, but almost looks like new pine now. Ah well, lesson learnt......

 

[Droogs]

You could tone it down a bit with strong tea (no milk) wiped on and left to dry. will give you back some of the warmth you have lost

rgds
droogs

 

[Nelsun]

I made a similar sounding tabletop and resurfaced the top recently after putting in ~10 splines to hold various sized splits together. Did mine in danish oil as it sees quite a lot of action from the sprogs and occasional cheeky workbench usage (when the better half is out!). There were 2 boards that were decidedly on the light side so they got 2 or 3 goings over with a dark "oak" danish oil to bring them into line with the other 3 already darker ones. Not a perfect match but it certainly improved things.

 

[Matt@]

a good tip for filling cracks is to use masking tape and mask up all along the crack as tight up the edge of the crack as possible then apply filler. If you were to use 2 pack filler, pull off masking tape as soon as filler has been applied then you end up with a neat line of filler in the crack that can be levelled once hard. Using PVA and woodust, the glue may seep under the masking tape so use electricans tape instead.

 

[rafezetter]

a good tip for filling cracks is to use masking tape and mask up all along the crack as tight up the edge of the crack as possible then apply filler. If you were to use 2 pack filler, pull off masking tape as soon as filler has been applied then you end up with a neat line of filler in the crack that can be levelled once hard. Using PVA and woodust, the glue may seep under the masking tape so use electricans tape instead.

2 pack epoxy filler can also be dyed with common craft acrylic paint, to either blend or highlight, it's a common practise especially with woods known for cracking.

I would also suggest investing in some wood dye and use that to colour instead of relying solely on the wax to do the colouring - that way if there is an issue it's a simple fix to sand that area and carefully re-dye.

For adding back that "gnarly scaffold board" look grab a length of chain and have at the tabletop, then hit the whole thing with a softish wire brush (brass is good), not too much pressure or you'll create track lines; this will reduce that "too smooth" look from the hard sanding. The new wax finish will make it so it's still soft enough to rub your hand over.

 

[Jacob]

Seems a lot of bother for a few old scaffold boards. Why not just paint them? Or wash with sugar soap and leave them completely untouched.