Refinish an oak veneer table top that is scuffed and faded by years of kitchen use. Detach the table top and relocate to a ventilated workshop to minimize fumes and dust. Remove the old finish, sand and stain, and then coat the surface with several coats of durable water-proof clear coat before reenlisting the table as kitchen furniture.
Examine the wooden table to confirm that the table top alone needs refinishing. Remove the top from the frame. Protect it while moving it to a well-ventilated work area to avoid chemical fumes and dust inside your home.
Apply a thick paste remover with a disposable nature bristle brush to a small area. Overworking stripper lessens its effectiveness, so use minimal brushstrokes. Give the gases in the chemicals time to bubble and lift the old finish.
File the sharp corners of a wide putty knife and gently scrape up the wet residual finish lifted by the stripper. Clean the putty knife on the edge of a small cardboard box lined with newspaper. Work with the grain.
Brush on liquid stripper and let it work. Use medium fine steel wool to dislodge remnants left by the paste. Work the rounded edges of the table top with steel wool to clean the surface. Work with the grain.
Dip medium fine steel wool into lacquer thinner and work with the grain to wash away the wax-like residue left by the strippers.
Wear a face mask while you smooth the oak veneer using 220-grit sandpaper and a finishing sander. Keep working with the grain and don't over-sand, because the veneer is very thin. Clean away the sanding debris.
Match existing color, mixing stains if necessary and testing on scrap wood. Coat the table top with a brush or rag. Wipe off the excess with a lint-free rag and let it dry for at least 24 hours.
Stir the semi-gloss clear coat thoroughly to mix the flattening agent. Apply the clear coat with a good quality natural-bristle brush to avoid dropped bristles and produce a smooth coat. Sand and clean between each coat after they dry.
Rub finishing wax on the dried surfaces with super fine steel wool to eliminate any tiny surface imperfections and give them a velvety finish. Let the wax dry for a few minutes, and then buff it with a soft cloth.
We welcome your ideas and suggestions. Read through comments from other readers or leave your own.
Ron,
Thanks for this walk through. I am in the process of staining my kitchen table to a different color entirely! By using your suggestions, things are going nicely & I am on the last chair before I clean and start applying the stain! I cant wait to see the final product!
Great video!
My oak table is 20 years old. Parts of the table are very sticky. Is that is finish that has been coming off?
Is there any other thing I can do besides refinishing? Just curious.
Thanks
THANK YOU. That looks exactly like our table. I have never done a project like this and now I know how.
I always had a problem getting a smooth finish on flat surfaces until I tried your steelwool and pastwax method. This works great. I have showed my other woodworking friends and they couldn’t believe the outcome. Ron thanks for this great tip. I have used this on two tables and a chair already.
Really helpful! Thank you!
The video has really enthused me. I am ready to redo my Drexel tabletop. The only problem is matching the stain color. It seems to be a pecan color. I am glad you showed how to add a color to the main stain.
Excelente trabajo Ron muchas gracias.
Ron,
I just refinished my 20 year old solid oak (no veneer) kitchen table top. It was in about the same condition as the one in your video. It looked terrible! I contemplated getting a new table until I saw this video. I followed your step by step instructions and I am amazed with the results. The table top looks better than the day I bought it. I am pretty handy and have worked with polyurethane quite a bit but I never knew about the finishing wax and steel wool. It gave the final coat the factor finish that a kitchen table needs. Awesome project!
Ron,
I just refinished my 20 year old solid oak (no veneer) kitchen table top. It was in about the same condition as the one in your video. It looked terrible! I contemplated getting a new table until I saw this video. I followed your step by step instructions and I am amazed with the results. The table top looks better than the day I bought it. I am pretty handy and have worked with polyurethane quite a bit but I never knew about the finishing wax and steel wool. It gave the final coat the factor finish that a kitchen table needs. Awesome project!
Great video which makes it seem fairly easy. I do have a question however regarding the polyurethane. Did you use semi-gloss or satin on this project? When you were stirring the clear coat poly in the can you said that it was a semi-gloss that you were using, but when you began to apply the finish you said it was a satin finish. I liked the finished results of the table and would like to use the same finish. Also, you said that you lightly sanded between the three coats of poly but the video didn’t show what you sanded with. Steel wool or sand paper? Thanks
Great video which makes it seem fairly easy. I do have a question however regarding the polyurethane. Did you use semi-gloss or satin? When you were stirring the clear coat in the can you said that it was a semi-gloss that you were using but when you began to apply the finish you said it was a satin finish. I liked the finished results of the table and would like to use the same finish. Also, you said that you lightly sanded between the three coats of poly but the video didn’t show what you sanded with. Steel wool or sand paper? Thanks
Great job Ron ,I’m going to follow this same method to refinish a table for a friend
This is the best video I’ve seen, you know what your doing.
Thank for this video
Gilles
Ron
At the Home depot store ,there is a product that you mix for tables like you would see in a restaurants mixing resin with a hardener 50%/ 50% mix .I was going to granite my counter top in kitchen , I was wondering if this product could be use to cover the formica counter top with the back splash .Iknow it is tricky ..Iwas wondering if you could contact the supplier and see if they could show me or use the trick on using this product it is expense and approx $25. per 9 square feet which is much cheap than a granite counter top and high gloss looks great and it seems like it is hard as a rock,, any suggestions ...p.s. love the show keep up the great work for passing along the knowledge for us home repair men thank steve
I conditioned, stained, this went well. Applying the varnish/poly, first coat 24hrs to dry, sand with 220 then 600/lemon oil and cleaned with spirits, second coat the same way, third coat applied like the first two with a good pure bristle brush.
The final finish came out with little dust particals and what looks to be air bubbles. I have a nice new 20 x 28 shop to work in and I did my best to ensure it was dust free. Unfortunately I don’t have a paint booth and exhauste fan.
I have re-sanded and started over a couple of times with the same results.
What I’m I doing wrong.
On an existing piece, if I use Furniture Refinisher, will it remover the stain?
Thanks Sir,
This tips is very useful for my work
Regards
Kuldeep
Great procedure Ron. I tried it on Friends night stand. Looks like new.Thanks
I have a square table with a very thin(I mean very thin) veneer on top. Almost paper thin. There are many chips in it. Cover up stain pens don’t cover the chips. What can I do to fix the problem?
Hi we are trying to refinish our maple table that is about 50 years old we are at the final stages and the 2nd layer of top coat has developed some bubbles any suggestions on what to do and to keep it from happening with the 3rd and possably fourth coat.
Great Video, We just had our Oak Table Refinished and concerned about the Oak Grains not being filled in. The openings or grains make the table look nice but as a Kitchen table im worried about dirt and water getting into them.
Should a Oak Table top have a thick finish with no grains?
You mentioned that the table top was veneer so I have a comment/question regarding veneer.
Our kitchen cabinets are for the most part solid birch but the end of the cabinets are covered in veneer. I have read that using stripper solutions can sometimes have an effect on the glue holding the veneer to what ever is underneath. Thus making the veneer come unglued and peel away. I would like to strip all the cabinets and stain them a little darker. I have tried sanding the inside of one of the cabinet doors but there is a thick layer of sealer and it would take forever. I would use a stripper but am afraid I would ruin the veneer and then get in over my head and budget. Any suggestions? We have a lot of cabinets! To costly to replace them all.
Thanks,
Chris
My table about 5years old. I would like refinesh it do I have strip it I want to keep the same color
Great video. Very informative but the milk spill at the end was corny:)
I’d like to refinish my coffee table, but there is a black line all around a few inches from the edge and I think it will be removed if I use the finish remover.
I refinished my 14 year old kitchen table top, and it looks amazing. Thanks for the easy to follow video. I saved hundreds of dollars. On to more projects.
I would say the best part of this video is when Ron reaches for the milk, but quickly diverts to the brownie and knocks over the cup.
GREAT DEMO , LAYING A NEW FLOOR IN THE KITCHEN AND NOW I CAN DO THE KITCHEN TABLE. YOUR WEB SITE IS GREAT. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK
Hi Ron, Great demo! One thing confuses me. In between coats of laquer, you say to sand lightly. Is this to roughen up the undercoat? How then do you get a smooth finish? My table is round. Any suggestions?
Great demo! It gave me a good understanding of what needs to happen. I could not find the liquid stripper you demonstrate but there was a Wash that I used that actually did the job. The demonstration was enough to actually coach me through my own project. Thank you!
I am wanting to sand in lieu of paint remover. How do you tell when you a hit the sweet spot ?
Thanks! That was fabulous. I’m in the middle of a project and beginning to panic (because of instructions for toxicity).
Your demonstration calmed me down. I think I can do it. Do you have any Briwax instructions, and how do you keep your sanding bag clean? Do you wash it with water?
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Thanks so much for video. I have been looking for something to help me re finish my table. I have one question, I was just wondering on table legs and things that have a lot of detail work that are not very smooth, how do you go about sanding and stripping that?