Lemon Pledge

[OTB]

I have done furniture repair professionally for almost 30 years (it's what I do when I'm not teaching). I spend a lot of that time repairing the damage that Pledge and other spray cleaners do. The carriers that they use to make them come out of the can are solvents (because they have a higfh evap rate). I wouldn't put Pledge on my furniture; certainly won't use it on my bikes.

[Gas Man]

No shit OTB... never knew you did that. Interesting...

Got any pics of your work?

[OTB]

Originally Posted by Gas Man

No shit OTB... never knew you did that. Interesting...

Got any pics of your work?

Nah...pretty mundane stuff. My wife and I have a furniture store; about 10-15% of it gets nicks and scratches during shipping. When we first started out, we used to pay a guy to come in every couple of weeks and take care of all the little stuff...then he retired and I learned how to do it myself (I use Guardsman commercial repair stuff and took a course in furniture making and refinishing). I started doing small repairs in customers' homes, and then started doing commercial work for other furniture stores and a lot of work for moving and insurance companies, as it's kind of a dying art.

I do everything from french polishing of small scratches to whole top restorations, to repair of antique veneers, to fixing or replacing broken table legs, wiggly chairs, ect. I don't do stripping and whole piece refinishing....just repairs.

I use traditional laquer, nitro-cellulose, acrylic, two-stage catalyzed, clear or color finishes. I do old-style french polishing or up-to-the minute sprayed on water based finishes. I repair painted faux finishes, or score and paint grain into polyurathane repairs. It is an art unto itself, and the mark of someone really good is that you can't distinguish the repair from the original. I'm OK at it, but an aquaintance of mine is the guy they call when the Smithsonian needs something touched up.....that guy is an ARTIST.

[Gas Man]

That is interesting... Got any good pics of some before and afters though. I love wood working even though I rarely ever get to do it. Right now my bro and me are working on a big cabinet for his house. All oak. 4 drawers, 2 doors, and a large hinged top. Built a home made router table the other night in abt 30 mins... some plexi from lowes, scrap mdf and 2x4's... bam.