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Roger Beaudin writes:
As you can see the armoire is pretty good size it took me about 12
hours to strip. The drawers, door and base I stripped with the flow
over system I used about 3 gallons of the 2007.
The case I stripped by hand with the semi paste, including the back.
I used a little under 2 gallons of the semi-paste.
However, I did have some milk paint under the heavy lead and I removed
that with concentrated lye crystals that I purchased from Ace Hardware
(Red Devil Lye), mixed with hot water and scrubbed with 00 steel wool
I was able to clean the whole armoire with this solution in about 3 hours.
I had to make a couple of fresh batches of the lye solution (sodium
hydroxide) I thought it would darken the wood but it did not.
I had some extensive work to do on the armoire, the glue joints were all loose,
a drawer was missing the chamfered bottom there were some missing pieces, etc.
I am attaching a picture of the armoire. I will have about 25 hours when
completed, I have to make two shelves, stain the exterior with a light stain
to even out the color and finish with clear shellac. I am getting $800 for
the project, I should have charged more as there was work I did not see
when I took on the project, I did an estimated range of $600 to $800 and
should have been $800 to $1000 and the $1000 figure would have
prevailed.
The problem with my estimate is that I did not figure the strip time as
taking so long, Reason was the heavy lead paint under the more common
more modern lead base of which is common on very early painted as well
as the milk paint underneath. I will be more cautious next time around,
There were 5 distinct layers of paint on the armoire it was probably closer
to 6-8 layers. I ended up buying the acid base stripper which also was an
added expense, however it strips paint like MC strips lacquer
(just a little more messy).
If I had the armoire to sell I could get around $2000 to $2500 for it at
an antique show.
Roger Beaudin
Milton, DE
