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You can probably scrape this off with a mechanical scraper. A long handled scraper with a plastic handle and a blade a couple of inches wide costs $10-15 and you will need a file to occasionally sharpen the scraper blade as you work.
Henry in MI
Did you use a sanding block to sand after the filler hardened? Sounds like there was enough flexibility in your sandpaper that the pressure from your fingers removed more of the filler than what you removed from the surrounding wood, thus leaving the depressions. Hard rubber blocks shaped to common contours are available for sanding situations like molded shapes and are pretty inexpensive. Or you can use things like sections of PVC pipe that are close to your contours for this if you have them left over from plumbing jobs. Folding a quarter sheet of sandpaper into thirds makes a convenient size and shape for light knockdown sanding on flat surfaces and its thick enough that you usually don’t have a problem with light depressions.
You can paint over oil based primer with water based paint.
Henry in MI
Teddybear, there really aren’t that many diffierent variations of the rods, springs and kick releases for cribs. You might start with your phone book and call furniture stores that specialize in children’s furniture or major local furniture stores. They should have these or be able to direct you to a source.
Henry in MI
If you used a filler like BobF suggested, or a filler like Minwax High Performance Wood Filler or the many cellulose types, doing as BobF suggested will be no problem. But if you used a filler like Minwax Wood Filler or one of the many crayon type fillers, this will not be appropriate and you will have to use a different method. These fillers are colored waxes that never really harden and most primers do not stick to them for long. If you used this type of primer, use something like an X-Acto knife or other hobby knife or any thin knife with a sharply tapered point to remove as much of the wax as you can. Then, use paint thinner to wash away as much of the wax as you possibly can and, finally, lightly sand to try to remove the wax contaminated surface and proceed as BobF advises.
One other situation to be aware of is silicone contamination of the wood surface. If you used any product, like a wipe-on cleaner or aid to dusting, that had silicones in it (and this is not always shown on the label), primers or paint will not lay out flat and smooth. Instead, they will kind of puddle up in circular blobs called fisheyes. This is a bigger problem to remedy.
Henry in MI
Sorry, but this is just not a simple subject. There are many, many variables to consider to even look up accurate properties in established texts. The best text is Understanding Wood: A Craftman’s Guide to Wood Technology by: R. Bruce Hoadley. The book is about $40 but your library should have a copy. It is relatively readable and it will depend on your 12 year old how much he will understand.
The wood grading and marketing associations probably have more information on the web and at varying levels. You can check these by using your favorite search engine to look for sites having to do with things like hardwood or plywood associations. Several of these have some pretty good links to other sites.
Henry in MI
Fish150, you really need to strip the wallpaper off the walls before you paint. At some time in the future, even if you are lucky and your wallpaper is smooth enough that the seams do not show or the paper starts to come down while you are painting, you will want to remove the paper. Once wallpaper is painted, it becomes VERY difficult to remove. Do yourself a favor and do it right this time. Remove the wallpaper, seal the drywall with a primer/sealer like Zinsser’s B-I-N, then do the painting. You will be saving yourself from a BIG mess sometime in the future.
Henry in MI
I had the same problem recently. The cure for me was to vacuum around the fan motor in the lower part of the furnace. I had some build-up of dust, possibly from some mats of dust that may have been dislodged during cleaning of the return air ducts last spring. The dust was enough to stop the fan from turning, at least until I vacuumed it away. You could tell that this was happening because the motor would just hum when it could not turn and I’m sure that it got pretty hot. If your motor no longer hums, you may have to have the motor replaced. Don’t forget to turn off the electric power to the furnace when you are working on it.
Henry in MI
Why not put a very noticeable night light in the other plug area of the GFCI than the one that the freezer is plugged into. Just make sure that the freezer plug and the night light don’t stop the breaker part of the GFCI from popping and the night light will let you know that you at least have electricity to the wall plug. Isn’t that what you really want, a way to tell if the freezer seems to be working OK?
Henry in MI
Since the historical reason for installing chair rails was to protect plaster walls from being dinged by chairs, and typically only dining room chairs at that, you will not have any hstorical prescedent with your paneled walls. The first thing that I would do would be to do a lot of measuring to find an appropriate height, preferrably in the 28-36 inch high range where you had as few meetings with other moldings as possible. You do want to get the moldings so you don’t have to get them to conflict with window sills and stools. From there, you probably should be able to get by with butt joints or minimal cope cuts to meet with the old moldings.
Without knowing the size of the various moldings, it’s difficult to say much more but another possibility would be a long miter (about 25 degrees) on the face of the chair rail before you cut across the rail to end up with a thinned butt joint. Please be very careful in making the long miter as the wood will not be well supported and there is a good possibility of kickback on a miter saw making this cut.
Henry in MI
I really don’t think that you can assume that your cabinets have a lacquer finish unless you know that was what your ordered or something. You might want to go to <a href="http://wickshttp://www.freeweb-hosting.com” target=”blank”>http://wicks<a href="http://www.freeweb-hosting.com” target=”blank”>www.freeweb-hosting.com and check out the information at Finishing 101 in the Hints and Tips section that is down a little and on the right side of the page. That takes you through the steps to determine what finish you have on your cabinets now.
Whatever the finish, you will have to remove any oil or grease that is on the present finish before you try to recoat it. One tip is that Dirtex is fairly similar to TSP in it’s cleaning ability but is easier on skin. I’ve never noticed much of an odor from either of them. You will also want to lightly sand or otherwise abrade the surface before you recoat.
Henry in MI
On some bathroom tile floor installations, rammed wet sand is used to contour the main bathroom floor or a shower floor for water run-off. Getting this right is something that takes a bit of experience.
Henry in MI
For a high traffic area like this, and one that may well be subject to the effects of weather, I think that a true, 2 part, epoxy paint is the only way to go. I think that you should contact a commercial floor painter who is used to doing this kind of work about embedding the logo. Places like machine shops and food processors are other kinds of businesses that often use the epoxy products. Another issue to consider is the slipperyness of your floor in wet situations.
Henry in MI
Start by damp mopping the floor with dishwashing detergent in water. Some like Murphy’s Oil Soap for this but I haven’t been a fan. Really wring the sponge mop that you use for drying to get as much of the water up that you possibly can. If that doesn’t work, you can move to the use of solvents but just the water and detergent is a good place to start.
If you are sure that you have oil based polyurethane or varnish on the floor, washing by damp mopping with ammonia and water is a good next step. If you have water based polyurethane, don’t use ammonia. You can test to see if there is any reaction in a hidden location with full strength ammonia first. Be cautious what cleaners you do use as some products contain silicone that makes future refinishing a lot more difficult.
Henry in MI
A quick wipe-down or even a hosing will not hurt wood that is in good condition. It’s the long term effects of molds, mildews and, possibly, compression set that can cause problems. One other consideration is that the doors may have paint on them that contains lead. Removing this so you don’t have rubbing or scraping of the lead based paint into the area is important. The best way to accomplish this, either for paint or for a clear film finish (like varnish) removal is with a good stripper. I would suggest that Peel Away 1 would be a good choice for you to consider. Check this out at their web site http://www.peelaway.com or at a Sherwin-Williams store or other stocking location.
Henry in MI
I haven’t used it because I haven’t run into a place where I needed it but Citristrip makes a product designed to work on this problem. The old glue tends to really gum up expensive sanding belts fast and you will want to get as much glue off with a stripper type product as you possibly could before thinking of sanding.
Henry in MI
