Product to remove lacquer finish?

[Len Rosenberg]

I have an oak dining room set purchased from Thomasville about 25 years ago. It is a table with a veneered top, and solid oak chairs, stained with a clear finish. The finish, which I assume is nitro lacquer, has turned soft, sticky, and black in spots. What is the best product to use to remove the original finish so I can stain and refinish the table and chairs?

Thanks,

Len

[Joe Kieve]

If it really is lacquer and it probably is...lacquer thinner should work. Will probably take at least a gallon to do all you have to do. Wear respiratory protection and gloves!

[Art Mann]

We have an old dining room suit from the 1950's that my wife inherited several years ago. The finish became soft and sticky and imprinted the pattern of the table cloth that was on it for decades. You could scrape it off in places with a fingernail. I don't know for sure what the finish was but lacquer thinner dissolved it. To strip the finish off, I used an orange colored citrus stripper I bought from HD. It worked well and the smell and workability were much better than the more harsh strippers. If I had it to do again, I might try just washing the finish off with lacquer thinner but it is a lot more volatile than the orange colored stuff.

[Mike Henderson]

I'd use a stripper product. Lacquer thinner evaporates too quickly and you breathe the stuff.

Mike

[Howard Acheson]

To do the fastest, most complete job, use a chemical stripper containing methylene chloride. If you plan to re-stain the wood, you must be sure to remove all the original finish or the new stain will not color evenly.

[John TenEyck]

Getting the finish off is the easy part. KleanStrip Premium (methylene chloride) stripper will take of NC lacquer about as fast as you can brush it on. The problem will be if the table top had grain filler so that it would be really smooth. I'm guessing it did. If that comes out with the stripper you will have to refill the grain as part of the refinishing process. An even worse case would be if only some of it comes out and it was a colored filler. Matching it might not be so easy. Hopefully, you'll end up with a nice smooth surface after stripping and you can proceed w/o much further prep work. If the table was stained the stripper will probably remove some of all of that, too. If you have some photos of the table and chairs for everyone to look at you might get better/additional input.

John

[Alan Lightstone]

The methylene chloride sounds like pretty nasty stuff to work with.

[Art Mann]

I just looked up the product I used and the brand name is Citristrip. It worked very well for me and is less obnoxious than the typical Kleen Strip type stuff. Lacquer removal isn't very challenging but it is very messy.

[Len Rosenberg]

Thanks for the replies everyone! I'll experiment with a few different products recommended here and see what works best.

Len

[John TenEyck]

The methylene chloride sounds like pretty nasty stuff to work with.

Not nearly as nasty as many make it out to be. I wear an organics respirator, heavy rubber gloves and, of course, safety glasses. I prefer to do it outdoors, but I've done it indoors with a couple of windows open and a fan in one of them. I've never tried Citristrip and maybe it would work on something as easy as lacquer. But for harder to remove finishes it either doesn't work or takes forever, so I just use Kleanstrip as it quickly removes most furniture finishes.

John

[Ed Edwards]

hello all,
So what stripper has the most methylene chloride in it I need to do someHD stripping??

Thanks,
Ed