Repairing damaged table finish

[Rick Haigh]

I am trying to determine how to repair a table that had a bottle of fingernail polish spilled on it. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to go about repairing the finish?

Thanks,
Rick

[Carl Eyman]

What is the finish?

[Chris Padilla]

Rick,

You must figure out what the original finish is in order to properly repair it. Also, read the bottle of fingernail polish removal and see what solvent it uses: alcohol (methyl, ethyl) or naptha or whatever. That might also assist you in figuring out what the finish is made up from.

[Rick Haigh]

I am pretty confident that the finish is lacquer.

Rick

[Carl Eyman]

I guess I bow out. Laquer is my area of least knowledge. But, one more question. Has the cokor been affected? The stain removed, changed, etc? That will affect how you repair it. My most sage advice is: go to homesteadfinishing.com and ask them there. Very helpful people. They've saved my life many times.

[Todd Burch]

Rick, post a picture. The solvent in fingernail polish is typically acetone, which eats rights through lacquer.

Lacquer is a repairable finish. You'll need to determine if your table was stained and then lacquered, or merely sprayed with a tinted lacquer. If sprayed with a tinted lacquer, the wood will be natural color where the finish was removed.

If no color adjusting is needed in the repair area, then simply feather sand and reshoot in area. Buff with steel wool to blend, then polish. Stay away from the unfinished wood when feathering.

If you need to recolor, now your are in league that really requires expertise. While certainly a larger effort, redoing the whole top is certainly less of a headache unless you want to fight matching the color.

[Rick Haigh]

Thanks guys for the help. My friend actually owns the table and since it did discolor the finish, I suggested to him to sand the top and refinish it. He is excited, because he gets to tear into his dining room table.

Thanks,
Rick

[Byron Trantham]

Thanks guys for the help. My friend actually owns the table and since it did discolor the finish, I suggested to him to sand the top and refinish it. He is excited, because he gets to tear into his dining room table.

Thanks,
Rick
..and the chairs? :mad:

[Rick Haigh]

Byron,
Ha! When he first told me about the problem, he wanted to strip the entire table and start over. I think he was looking for something to do.... The table is only a few years old, so I hope he and his family have not done too much damage to the chairs as well.

Rick