# Need help fixing my table top



## djonesax (Mar 3, 2008)

This is kinda weird. I was painting a room and placed some painters plastic on top of our store bought dinning room table. On said plastic, I had rested my rubber knee pads only to find later that the knee pads had left imprints on the table when I removed the plastic. I had noticed that the plastic was a little stuck to the table under the knee pads. I thought maybe the finish had moisture in it and was soft so I let it dry but its still there. I tried buffing it with a dry yarn knitted wash cloth which seemed to help but I still see the imprints and now the area is glossy and the rest of the table is satin. What do you think this could be?

Thanks,

David


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

It's difficult to say what might have caused it. I think you could buff it out with a #7445 white scotch brite pad. Let the pad glide on the surface rather than putting a lot of pressure on it. Pressure will make the sheen uneven.


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## djonesax (Mar 3, 2008)

Thanks, I may try this.


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## DanShaf (Jul 25, 2015)

The damage is caused "plasticizer migration". The plasticizers in the plastic chemically denatured the finish on your table. Abrading the table can help and in rare cases fix the scarring of the finish but most of the time not. You say that you improved the look but you did not erase the damage entirely. 

There are two other approaches to dealing with this type of damage:

1. Clean and dewax the surface first with naphtha or an autobody dewaxing wash and then with a solution of TSP and water. Keep the TSP solution weak. The stronger the solution the more it will soften the finish on the table. You need a squeaky clean finish (for what follows), you don't need a softened and gummy finish. Then, spray on sanding sealer. This is regular, ordinary, normal stearated sanding sealer. It's going to be used to lay down a new and flat surface. Don't flood it on, fog it on. It has to both fill and act as a barrier coat. 

On top of your sanding sealer you would spray new nitrocellulose lacquer topcoats. Build up your new topcoats until you think you have enough dry mil thickness to level-sand it smooth and then rub to its appropriate sheen.

This approach isn't the best one. Sanding sealer as a smooth base is fine, but in this situation it's going to contribute to a softer topcoat than what you would achieve if you only stayed within 1/2 dry mil of sanding sealer. Stearates sand nicely and they do fill, but they get cloudy when applied too thickly and stearates are soft. This workaround has no sanction from any finish manufacturer, but it's tried and true (often), save for a new finish that scratches and marrs more than what you want from a table top finish.

2. Strip and refinish. This approach works. Your original finish is corrupted in its damaged area. It's a chemical issue and mechanical repair attempts don't completely hide the visibly denatured finish.

Your original finish is nitrocellulose lacquer if you bought a table made by any of the giant manufacturers. In their finish schedules they also used stearated sealers, they ALL do, that's factory finishing.

Not all nitrocellulose lacquers perform the same on the Pensky Pencil Hardness Test. Both Sherwin-Williams and ML Campbell nitrocellulose lacquers are soft! And never use Sherwin-Williams Moisture Resistant Lacquer for table and dresser tops, talk about soft!

I use nc lacquer from Camger Coatings. If you're near Massachusetts then you might try them out. Kwick Kleen Industrial Solvents just went out of business, their nc lacquer was also fun to use. Camger's Plex was a great find, thankfully.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*thanks for the response*

A very specific and knowledgeable response from a new member is always a good thing. :yes: Welcome aboard to you. Finishing has always been a bit of a mystery to me, part art and part science in my opinion, so it's good to have as much knowledge as possible. I just did a body panel repair today.... Dura Glass, primers, wet dry sanding, lacquer putty etc. Clear coat goes on tomorrow. Air pressure setting, viscosity, flow rate, pattern size.... whew. Clean the gun and start again in the AM.


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## DanShaf (Jul 25, 2015)

woodnthings said:


> I just did a body panel repair today.... Dura Glass, primers, wet dry sanding, lacquer putty etc.


Youzer. For what it's worth, when I'm in charge of my own project and procedures I wetsand between coats instead of Fre-Cut (stearated sandpapers).

If it's on an old finish, like a 70 year old Steinway piano, I have to be careful what liquid to use. Breached finishes are wetsanded with naptha or naptha/moneral spirits. Finishes that haven't oxidised or dried out, where the film is still sound and whole get soapy water. 

I use squeegies and terrycloth facecloths to dry things up as a progress along the surface.

I blocksand either with a sanding block wrapped in leather (not a 100% hard surface) or thick polyethylene foam (lots of give).

Steelwooling and/or Scotchbrite is done with the material wrapped around a block. I like to use Meguirtes 3 to lubricate the steelwool or the Scotchbrite. 

I also use a rubbing brush (looks like a giant shoe brush). These are hard to find, real hard. My source was a brush company on Long Island.


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