Over lunch I went in search of Tung oil to use for finishing the table. Turns out pure tung oil is very difficult to find in stores. Sears, Lowe's, Home Depot, Sherwin Williams and a local paint store all failed. I ended up going to the crazy old school hardware store in Orono. That guy has everything. Every time I've needed something hard to find that other stores said "we just don't carry that anymore", sure enough he's got it. He gave me a discount on the can and said it had probably been there for 10 years.
When I returned home Marco and Jer were at the door ready to greet me. I was so distracted I climbed off my bike w/out putting down the kickstand, snapping off the clutch handle and the shifter peg in the process. Fortunately, I had a spare handle laying around for just such an occasion. However, the shifter is another issue. The peg snapped leaving the bolt in the lever (which is fine). If I can't figure a way to get that thing out, a new shifter will set me back $140. Very frustrating. I'll have to see if Jenny has any suggestions for me tomorrow.
As far as the table goes...
Day 2:
Stripping the paint and bleaching the top.
After replacing the handle on the motorcycle I set to work on stripping the paint off the table. I took it outside and slathered on the stripper. It burned right through the gloves I was wearing when it came in contact and caused several tiny burns where it splashed. Stuff is no joke. The first run was kind of a mess; it did remove a lot of paint but also smeared it around quite a bit. On my second try I started working piecemeal, which worked a lot better. Most of the paint is off the legs but there's still some left, especially the big that is left behind/smeared. It's difficult to remove entirely. It may matter b/c I'll probably end up sanding everything down anyway.
After the sun fell I brought the table back into the garage to try to bleach the stains out of the top. The top has several large black ring stains and another long/large stain. Reading up these black stains are caused by tap water or other liquid seeping into the wood where natural tannins interact with the trace iron in the water. Supposedly Oxalic Acid will remove these stains (if that's what they indeed are). Well, despite 3 tries (following the directions) I'm not seeing much of a difference. I'm afraid I'm going to have to sand the top down quite a bit to get rid of the stain (if possible), plus I washed the top with mineral spirits and I was able to see the many small scratches and dings in the surface. Not sure if I'll be able to sand it down enough or if I should get filler. I may just try to remove the stains and apply the oil and go for a rustic/antique look. I mean that makes sense, right?
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