The Tabled Table

Remember this post where I was talking about racing the season?  I had three projects I needed to complete outside before the temps outside dipped too cold.

The chairs got spray painted and have found their new home in the dining room.  The buffet received a good sanding, some stain on top and a good paint job.  It now happily holds court in our den.

But this table.  This beautiful teak table that someone had painted, needed to get stripped.  We’re talking bare naked, down to the wood, then I would add some teak oil to condition.

Well……

This project didn’t quite get completed.  The table is only half naked.

Having said this, my attempt, efforts, and hours spent are up there.  Thinking that stripping the paint off this table would be one of the easier projects I’ve worked on lately, I brushed on the first coat of stripper.

Nothing happened.

So I brushed on another coat.  Still, no paint was scraping off.  I got out my handy heat gun thinking that would certainly help with the process and I would have that table stripped in no time.

Nahhhhhh.  Not really.

The heat gun was my coworker for about 3 hours, and still, I wasn’t getting too far.  This was (and still is) the most stubborn paint.

In comes the sander.  At first, I was using a 100 grit sand paper, and it deemed too soft.  I needed coarser.  I settled on a 60 grit, and I was in business.  But slow business.

Just to sand the top of this table in my third attempt to get the paint off, it took me 5 hours.

5 hours, and the bottom is still green.

When I finished sanding the top, the clock was ticking on 4:00.  4 o’clock on what was probably our last 60 degree day for the year.

We’ve had a beautiful , unseasonably warm fall.  For that, I am grateful, as I was able to stretch out my projects, and buy a little time.

But for now, I’m going to have to table the table project.   I will be able to rub a coat of teak oil on the top of the table today, before it heads into the barn for the winter.  In the spring, I’ll get to work on stripping the paint off the legs, and maybe one more final sanding on the top.

To be continued….

Spring 2016.