TRASHY looking Teak MCM End Table RESTORATION

In today's video I have two very stained teak end tables and because I'm going to show you a quick and easy way to refinish them I decided to throw in a redo on a small mid-century shelf that's been hanging around my workshop for the past year. So stay tuned for that you can catch that footage at the end. I bought these from Facebook Marketplace and really they hadn't been abused that badly. I guess that is a matter of opinion. They may look a bit trashy but everything I had to do to them to bring them back to life was purely cosmetic. There was no woodworking skills necessary on this one. So sit back relax and let's get started. One of the first things I noticed was the bottom part of the end tables were made of solid teak and they were in pretty good shape. The finish was intact and there were only a few scuff marks around the bottom of the legs. The tops of the tables were edged in solid teak but the inside was teak veneer as you can see in this photo. The first thing I'm going to do after removing the base is give it a good wash with soapy water. I use a combination of a rag and just a general household scouring pad to remove the scuff marks the leftover food and any beverage stains and just general dirt. I use the exact same cleaning method for the tabletops. You can really see the difference in the lower left corner that cleaning makes. Cleaning a really dirty piece also helps save your sandpaper later on. It doesn't gum it up or with dirt or chemicals. I repeat the cleaning process on the second tabletop exactly the same as I did on the first. After cleaning the tabletops I go over everything once again with 4-0 steel wool dipped in some denatured alcohol. This helps remove any oil or wax buildup. In the past I've also used mineral spirits to do the same thing. There wasn't a heavy lacquered finish on these end tables so this was all that was necessary to give them a good clean before sanding. After the final cleaning is done I let it dry and start sanding. Because the top surface is veneer I use a combination of hand sanding with 150 grit and using my surf prep very cautiously. I don't want to sand through the veneer and expose the substrate. The sides are solid teak so I use 120 grit because it's a bit more aggressive at removing the finish before moving up to 150 grit. I also attach my foam pad to the sander so sanding the curves is a bit easier but you can sand curves like this without any attachment as long as you keep the sander moving and overlap. Here's a good side-by-side comparison of the two tabletops before and after sanding. Quite the difference. I'm using a chip brush to apply oxalic acid to the surface of the table. I'm hoping to lift any residual stains that the sanding didn't fully remove. I allow the acid to sit on the wood until it dries then I wipe it off with warm water. After reassessing the surface I either apply another layer or decide that the results are good enough and move on. After looking at the newly wiped down top I'm not thrilled with the light orangey look to the wood. The bottom of the table is much darker. Here's a good look at it. Since I'm doing this in my basement I can't really use spray toners to alter the color so I think what I'll do is I'll add a bit of stain to the top just to get it a little closer to the base. What I'm doing here is applying a little bit of General Finishes Nutmeg to the edge trim and the veneer on the underside of the tabletop just to get an idea of what that will do to the color of it. I'm going to wipe it off and then I'm just going to wet a piece of the veneer beside it to see what the difference in the color will be and I'll make my decision then. After letting the stain dry for 24 hours I apply two coats of Gilboy's Hard Wax Oil leaving 24 hours between coats although I think the product label says you can reapply after eight hours. The last step is applying Gilboy's Wax which I apply with 4-0 Steel Wool. I let it sit for about half an hour then I buff it off with an oil towel. This is what really brings on the shine. I apply the hard wax oil and the wax to the base of the end tables as well. I didn't film it though because I thought it was a bit redundant. Stay tuned to the end of the video and you'll see what the full reveal of these two end tables are. I am going to switch gears now and start working on the next piece. This is a little walnut mid-century shelf that I picked up oh it had to be about a year ago. When I bought it I thought it was like twice I didn't check the dimensions and I thought it was like twice as big as it actually was. It's really a diminutive little shelf. It's three shelves but quite small so I just basically took it apart and left it in my workshop for the last year just because I was just uninspired to do anything with it. But finally I am getting to it and I'm going to just you know revive it and make it useful again. It's an interesting design. I've refinished one of these shelves before although a little bigger than this one. All the legs and spindles are connected by hanger bolts and so it comes apart really easily with a bit of twisting. Here is a good example of working smarter not harder. I started off using my surf prep with 150 grit and I noticed that the finish was just taking forever to come off. I didn't have any 120 grit in the surf prep size sandpaper so I slapped on my regular orbital sandpaper which I did have in 120 grit. I continued to sand and although it was working better it was still not great. I finally realized that if I used my Makita orbital sander it would take the finish off quicker. It's a much heavier machine and it covers more surface so I switched to that. I should have done that at the very beginning. I'm using some quick wood which is an epoxy putty to do the repair on the missing veneer here. I just keep applying more and more to it until I get the surface of it a little proud so I'll be able to sand it off later. It's strange right here there is some discoloration. There might have been something placed on the shelf for a long time maybe and it protected this area from the sun. The rest of the walnut was bleached by the light but not this section. I'm sanding with 150 grit and I'm being very careful to keep the sander from going over the edge and rounding off the edge and potentially burning through the veneer. I almost always end up hand sanding edges to finish off the sanding process. It's just safer. I decided to use a darker water-based stain on the light wood on the sides of the shelf. This particular stain is in a dark walnut color and it penetrates the wood and leaves behind a nice rich brown color. Using the gel stain in nutmeg would have made the size just too light in color in my opinion. I'm using Mohawk's blend all powders combined with some sanding sealer to paint some color back into the epoxy putty repair I did. It's really a trial and error approach. I currently only have three colors. Perfect Brown, Van Dyke Brown, and Burnt Sienna so I make the best of it. Here's a good comparison of before and after oiling. It really brings out the warmth in the wood. I know these pieces of furniture weren't one of those amazing trash to treasure type redoes but I also know they have value and they deserved a little TLC. Enjoy their updated look and I will see you next time.