# Juniper Table Restoration



## junipercanyon (Jan 10, 2011)

*Sanding and disassemble*

My great grandparents bought this juniper table in Arizona around 1940. It made its way with them on several moves that eventually settled in Central Oregon. While not much to look at with the yellowed, stained, nicked, and just plain worn out finish, not to mention the failed joinery in 3 corners, I decided it was time for a refinishing of this old table. A 50grit belt sanding makes quick work of the original finish, (being careful not to sand too deep). I am following that with 120grit and 220grit on the random orbital sander. I will finish by hand sanding with 320grit and then apply 3-4 coats of Tung Oil covered with 2 coats of wipe on satin polycrylic. Should be a beautiful table once I'm done, the wood under that old finish is just amazing.


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## LittlePaw (Dec 21, 2009)

junipercanyon said:


> *Sanding and disassemble*
> 
> My great grandparents bought this juniper table in Arizona around 1940. It made its way with them on several moves that eventually settled in Central Oregon. While not much to look at with the yellowed, stained, nicked, and just plain worn out finish, not to mention the failed joinery in 3 corners, I decided it was time for a refinishing of this old table. A 50grit belt sanding makes quick work of the original finish, (being careful not to sand too deep). I am following that with 120grit and 220grit on the random orbital sander. I will finish by hand sanding with 320grit and then apply 3-4 coats of Tung Oil covered with 2 coats of wipe on satin polycrylic. Should be a beautiful table once I'm done, the wood under that old finish is just amazing.


WOW, what a second life with a lot of TLC! Looks beautiful already! Thank you for not letting the old table die!


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## Dez (Mar 28, 2007)

junipercanyon said:


> *Sanding and disassemble*
> 
> My great grandparents bought this juniper table in Arizona around 1940. It made its way with them on several moves that eventually settled in Central Oregon. While not much to look at with the yellowed, stained, nicked, and just plain worn out finish, not to mention the failed joinery in 3 corners, I decided it was time for a refinishing of this old table. A 50grit belt sanding makes quick work of the original finish, (being careful not to sand too deep). I am following that with 120grit and 220grit on the random orbital sander. I will finish by hand sanding with 320grit and then apply 3-4 coats of Tung Oil covered with 2 coats of wipe on satin polycrylic. Should be a beautiful table once I'm done, the wood under that old finish is just amazing.


I think Juniper has some beautiful colors!


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## junipercanyon (Jan 10, 2011)

*Plane practice on the underside*

The original maker of this table was much better at applying his time and talents on the side of the table a person can actually see, and left the underside rough cut. There were drips and runs from the original finish, and at some point in the past 70years the table was stored upside down as there were a few water spots and bird poop stains under there. I tried and tried to ignore it and kept telling myself that there was no reason to waste my time on the underside, but I just couldn't let it go….and besides, I needed practice with using a hand plane. So, the underside of this table is going to be as finished as the top, I may be the only person who would ever care or notice, but since I'm doing the work cause I want to, I'm the one who I have to please in the first place right??!!! I have never used a hand plane before so it took some trial and error to figure out how to get nice ribbons of wood to peel off, but I think I got it working pretty good. Several more hours of sanding to go, and lots of Tung oil to rub in and this should be a beautiful piece of functioning wood art!


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## LittlePaw (Dec 21, 2009)

junipercanyon said:


> *Plane practice on the underside*
> 
> The original maker of this table was much better at applying his time and talents on the side of the table a person can actually see, and left the underside rough cut. There were drips and runs from the original finish, and at some point in the past 70years the table was stored upside down as there were a few water spots and bird poop stains under there. I tried and tried to ignore it and kept telling myself that there was no reason to waste my time on the underside, but I just couldn't let it go….and besides, I needed practice with using a hand plane. So, the underside of this table is going to be as finished as the top, I may be the only person who would ever care or notice, but since I'm doing the work cause I want to, I'm the one who I have to please in the first place right??!!! I have never used a hand plane before so it took some trial and error to figure out how to get nice ribbons of wood to peel off, but I think I got it working pretty good. Several more hours of sanding to go, and lots of Tung oil to rub in and this should be a beautiful piece of functioning wood art!


Interesting project, but I think i would rather use a belt sander starting with 80 grit then 100, 150, 220 and 400.


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## junipercanyon (Jan 10, 2011)

junipercanyon said:


> *Plane practice on the underside*
> 
> The original maker of this table was much better at applying his time and talents on the side of the table a person can actually see, and left the underside rough cut. There were drips and runs from the original finish, and at some point in the past 70years the table was stored upside down as there were a few water spots and bird poop stains under there. I tried and tried to ignore it and kept telling myself that there was no reason to waste my time on the underside, but I just couldn't let it go….and besides, I needed practice with using a hand plane. So, the underside of this table is going to be as finished as the top, I may be the only person who would ever care or notice, but since I'm doing the work cause I want to, I'm the one who I have to please in the first place right??!!! I have never used a hand plane before so it took some trial and error to figure out how to get nice ribbons of wood to peel off, but I think I got it working pretty good. Several more hours of sanding to go, and lots of Tung oil to rub in and this should be a beautiful piece of functioning wood art!


I used a belt sander on the top side and it worked great, but I had just bought this hand plane and thought it would be a great chance to practice. It worked really good, and made a heck of a lot less dust. And it feels really cool when you get the ribbons of wood rolling off the plane.


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## junipercanyon (Jan 10, 2011)

*Sanding, Planing, Sanding, and a little more Sanding*

The results of many hours planing and sanding…. Once I buy some more sandpaper I will finish this up with probably 400 or 600 grit on the orbital sander, and then give it a critical hand sanding with 800grit. I could easily get away with the finish how it is now with just 220grit and hand sanded with 320grit, but I want to see if its worth the effort for even finer sanding on future projects. In these pics, I have just wiped the dust off with mineral spirits. Pretty cool. Notice in some of the pics that you can see some red colored stone inlays from the original build of this table. I didn't even notice they were there until I was well into the sanding, they blend in pretty good.









This pic shows the results from hand planing on the right, and sanded with 120grit on the left.









Sanded to 320grit and wiped with mineral spirits.









Sanded to 320grit and wiped with mineral spirits.









I eased all the sharp edges of the table so it feels smooth to the touch everywhere.









View from other end of the table.









Two of the stone inlays, there are around 10 of them across the table.









Close up of a stone inlay.


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## TZH (Oct 20, 2009)

junipercanyon said:


> *Sanding, Planing, Sanding, and a little more Sanding*
> 
> The results of many hours planing and sanding….  Once I buy some more sandpaper I will finish this up with probably 400 or 600 grit on the orbital sander, and then give it a critical hand sanding with 800grit. I could easily get away with the finish how it is now with just 220grit and hand sanded with 320grit, but I want to see if its worth the effort for even finer sanding on future projects. In these pics, I have just wiped the dust off with mineral spirits. Pretty cool. Notice in some of the pics that you can see some red colored stone inlays from the original build of this table. I didn't even notice they were there until I was well into the sanding, they blend in pretty good.
> 
> ...


Beautiful! Love that Juniper (the wood, the aroma, and the grain). This project will definitely be worth all the effort you've put into it when finished!


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## lightweightladylefty (Mar 27, 2008)

junipercanyon said:


> *Sanding, Planing, Sanding, and a little more Sanding*
> 
> The results of many hours planing and sanding…. Once I buy some more sandpaper I will finish this up with probably 400 or 600 grit on the orbital sander, and then give it a critical hand sanding with 800grit. I could easily get away with the finish how it is now with just 220grit and hand sanded with 320grit, but I want to see if its worth the effort for even finer sanding on future projects. In these pics, I have just wiped the dust off with mineral spirits. Pretty cool. Notice in some of the pics that you can see some red colored stone inlays from the original build of this table. I didn't even notice they were there until I was well into the sanding, they blend in pretty good.
> 
> ...


This is really progressing nicely. The top looks gorgeous!

L/W


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## junipercanyon (Jan 10, 2011)

*Test Teak oil for finish...Thoughts??*

I forgot to consider the temperatures in my garage this winter and wound up freezing my half full containers of Minwax Tung oil and polycrylic. I managed to save the polycrylic by putting the container in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes and it turned back into a liquid, but the tung oil wouldn't change back. I went to the store to buy some more, and my eye caught the price difference between tung oil and teak oil, ($19 for tung, $11 for teak) so I decided to try out the teak oil on the underside of this table. The finish looks the same to me as the tung oil finish, and the application is much less time consuming between coats. With tung oil, I have to wait a full day between coats, but with the Teak oil, it says to wait 30min for the first coat, and then 15min between the next. I put 4 coats on last night, and am liking the results. As of this morning , there are a few wet spots on the knots, but I am hopeful they will be dry when I get home tonight. Next, the plan is to wait 72hours, buff with steel wool, and then put a few coats of polycrylic on top to see if this is the finish I want for the top side.

I've always used Minwax Tung oil on my projects, but I'm thinking I may switch to using Teak oil for the ease of application and cost, does anyone have any thoughts on the difference of these oils???









Bottom side of the table, sanded and ready for finish.









Bottom side of the table, sanded and ready for finish.









Bottom side of the table. 4 coats of Teak oil (still wet). 30min dry time for first coat, 15min between next coats.









Bottom side of the table. 4 coats of Teak oil (still wet). 30min dry time for first coat, 15min between next coats.









Bottom side of the table. 4 coats of Teak oil (still wet). 30min dry time for first coat, 15min between next coats..


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## FatherHooligan (Mar 27, 2008)

junipercanyon said:


> *Test Teak oil for finish...Thoughts??*
> 
> I forgot to consider the temperatures in my garage this winter and wound up freezing my half full containers of Minwax Tung oil and polycrylic. I managed to save the polycrylic by putting the container in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes and it turned back into a liquid, but the tung oil wouldn't change back. I went to the store to buy some more, and my eye caught the price difference between tung oil and teak oil, ($19 for tung, $11 for teak) so I decided to try out the teak oil on the underside of this table. The finish looks the same to me as the tung oil finish, and the application is much less time consuming between coats. With tung oil, I have to wait a full day between coats, but with the Teak oil, it says to wait 30min for the first coat, and then 15min between the next. I put 4 coats on last night, and am liking the results. As of this morning , there are a few wet spots on the knots, but I am hopeful they will be dry when I get home tonight. Next, the plan is to wait 72hours, buff with steel wool, and then put a few coats of polycrylic on top to see if this is the finish I want for the top side.
> 
> ...


Until your post I not heard of teak oil. Have you noticed much difference between the two?


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