Ron recently picked up a beautiful armoire from a New York City hotel that was going out of business. The piece was in great shape and Ron loved all of its great hotel features. It even included a built in refrigerator!
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Unfortunately, while Ron was transporting the piece home, he accidentally broke off a small corner, which was pretty unsightly, especially because of the dark color of the finish. But Ron was determined to repair the damage, and it was an easier fix than you might think.
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| The armoire consisted of two separate sections so he was conveniently able to slide the top section out so that it overhung the bottom. This allowed him to work on the damaged corner more easily.
A material called polyester resin can be used for this type of repair. It is basically putty that does not set up until it is mixed with a hardener. Find out more about wood fillers. |
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| In order to keep the putty from dripping onto the floor, Ron used a scrap piece of wood and first sprayed it with WD40 to act as a release agent and to keep the putty from sticking to the wood and then clamped it to the underside of the damaged edge.
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| Ron removed a golf ball sized scoop of putty and placed it on a scrap piece of acrylic plastic for mixing.
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| A tube of hardener comes with the putty. The hardener acts as a catalyst that turns the putty from really gooey into rock hard. The more hardener that is added, the faster the putty will set. Ron added the necessary amount of hardener that would give him about five minutes to work with the putty before became too hard.
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| Ron used the putty to fill the void left by the wood that had been broken away. It isn't important to make the initial application of putty look good, the idea is just to fill the void with putty while it's still soft. As poly-resin dries, there's a window of about five or ten minutes when the putty is firm but still pliable. This is when it is ideal to create your desired shape.
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| When the putty was in this stage, Ron began by removing the excess material by simply cutting it away with a utility knife. It was firm enough that he was able to remove the board and begin shaping the edge.
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| Files and rasps are fine for this purpose but Ron's choice is a Microplane. He prefers this tool because the stainless steel cutting teeth are very sharp and do not clog, very similar to a cheese grater. In fact, the manufacturer of Ron's micro plane also makes kitchen utensils using the same technology.
Find out more about the Microplane.
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| After the rough shaping was done, Ron switched to sandpaper wrapped dowels to work on smoothing the surface. Larger dowels are best for bigger curves and smaller dowels for work better for tighter ones.
After replacing the missing wood with resin, the remaining challenge is to restore the color and finish. The poly-resin filler can't be stained, so a little creativity is necessary.
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| You can actually get amazing results using artist's acrylic colors. By mixing two or more colors together you will eventually find a shade that looks close.
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| Apply the paint to the hardened and shaped resin. If the color is not right, let it dry a few minutes and then try again by painting a different color over the first.
After you are satisfied with the color, the final step is to apply a top coat so that the sheen or shine also matches.
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| Spray lacquer works well for this. Before applying the lacquer, protect the surfaces you do not want to cover with newspaper and masking tape. Keep the can about a foot or so from the surface, spray in even strokes taking your finger off the nozzle at the end of each pass. Several light coats seem to work better than a single heavier coat.
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| It is incredible how well you can disguise damage by replacing wood with resin, and stain with paint. After Ron's handiwork, it was very difficult to tell that there was ever a mishap with his armoire.
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