Removing wax finish

[Craigus]

We have a pine coffee table which I believe has a wax finish, it certainly feels waxy. It's gotten pretty banged up so thought I would try to sort it out and refinish it with something harder wearing. Started sanding and inevitably clogged the sanding discs right up. I could carry on with this method but would rather not spend £20 on sanding discs.

Is there a better way to remove the wax before I sand it back? Any kind of thinners work?

Thanks all as always

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Wire wool and turps. It'll smell beautiful if nothing else.

 

[ED65]

Wax is soluble in turps or white spirit, so wiping with cloths or kitchen paper and plenty of either solvent will easily remove it from a surface. Do you think the polish was originally applied to bare wood? If it was it's harder to completely remove all traces as some will have penetrated into the wood surface but you'll at least get the worst of it off before sanding.

Sanding is not the best way to repair a surface of a beat-up table, the top surface at least would be better skimmed very lightly with a plane or scraped with a card scraper.

Another advantage of planing or scraping is that you don't need to remove the polish first.

 

[beganasatree]

I would also go for the card scraper.

Peter

 

[custard]

If it were a hardwood table then I'd have gone for a card scraper followed by sanding, but scraping pine is a trickier prospect. It often leaves a "wooly" surface, risks a washboard effect between the early wood and late wood, and scrapers and knots don't mix well!

I'd suggest white spirit to remove the wax (or acetone if it's wax over lacquer), then sand from about 120 grit in stages to about 220 grit. And make sure you use a hard backing pad under the abrasive paper, not just a cork block or the mushy backing pad that orbital sanders all seem to come with, otherwise you risk getting the washboard effect I mentioned earlier plus you'll dub over the edges which looks really amateurish.

Good luck!