Refinishing Lacquered Furniture

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Sloydwoodcraft

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I'm planning to refinish my coffee table this coming week. Its current finish is lacquer. I've been told that I need to strip off the existing finish with an equal parts mix of denatured alcohol and lacquer thinner before sanding and refinishing. Anyone got any thoughts on this. I just want to know if this is the right process or not. Any help appreciated 👍
 
What type of laquer? cellulose, polyeurothane, shellac?
 
That's the thing, I'm not sure what's currently on it. Its a commercial piece of furniture so I imagine it might be a poly finish.
 
I’d try and scrape it off as a first measure, less messy and less likely to burn you.

Aidan
 
Refinishing a drop leaf table of my mum's years ago, it was a probably 2 pack lacquer finish, cellulose. I needed to because at aged 6 I'd managed to get a fork between the rosewood and the glass top 😬 caused a bit of damage.

To remove it I used acetone, and to stop it evaporating off too quickly, because it does and pretty instantly, I placed a tea towel other the finish, then soaked it in acetone, then placed an opened out plastic bag over it to keep the moisture in the towel and stop it evaporating, which allowed the acetone to penetrate the finish. I repeated this several times to make sure I softened it all.
Then softened I used a cabinet scraper* to get the horrid sticky mess off, before sanding, wetting, more sanding, followed by more sanding before french polishing it .

*Stanley blades would probably be better in that theyre super cheap, easy to resharpen- blade down on a stone like youre blunting it, but the action produces a burr on the edge.
 
Lacquers as as tough as old boots and difficult to strip. Do you really need to do a complete strip down. ? Chestnut melamine spray cans are pretty good for touching up flat spots. The best option IMO is to use a 3M paint and varnish remover disc in a drill which removes the varnish but leaves a good finish. However they are a devil to find - I have to order them off US websites.
 
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