refinishing

November 12, 2009


Ply Refinishing

I have spent the better part of two afternoons (thank god I work east coast hours or I would not have the time to do this kind of stuff) now stripping old varnish off all the ply sections. Using my orbital sander and 100 grit I carefully stripped away the old varnish. I did manage to mess up a small spot under the ottoman on the ply (be careful when using an orbital sander). After the 100 grit I went down to 220 and gave each section a carefully loving once over. Then I steelwooled each section and then prep’ed them for stain. It is important to use a prestain treatment or sanding sealer before applying stain. Read and follow all directions on the products you use. Use proper ventilation and gloves when applying chemicals to the wood. Be careful to properly dispose of all materials used to apply stain and pretreatment. It can combust and burn your house down, plus its pretty nasty stuff in general. I applied one coat of minwax prestain and two coats of cherry minwax stain.

After allowing all section s to dry completely I then applied an interior/exterior minwax polyurethane in satin not gloss. I am only my second coat, in between each coat I knock down with 00 steelwool. This takes out any imperfections between coats. Use a foam applicator and make sure you double, thripple, quadruple check for drips by doing a secondary dry brushing over your coats well before they tack up.

Base and Stand Restoration

On this latest chair all the hardware is in good shape, a big $$$ saver. If your chair has hardware/base issues you can go here and buy new ones. http://swivel-chair-parts.com/Eames.html

But it will cost you…dearly. Keep that in mind when buying one of these chairs used. If the hardware is gaffed pass on the chair and wait to find one in proper working order.

For this chair I only needed to touch up the paint and clean the chrome and aluminum. For the paint I used a flat black spray paint. For chrome cleaning I used find steelwool and a good quality metal cleaner. Careful with the metal cleaners, some can etch rather than clean chrome…less is more here, less is more.

Materials

I just realized I have neglected to speak to costs on this restoration.

Chairs and Ottomans 2X2

1st Plycraft Eames Chair and Ottoman. = Free tossed out on the side of the road. Road Treasure.

2nd Plycraft Eames Chair and Ottoman = $99.75 (found a quarter in the cushion when disassembling which knocked the $100 price I paid down a bit)

Subtotal $99.75



Wood refinishing

Orbital Sander (I already had one they are $75 at home depot)

100 grit disks $6

220 grit disks $6

Minwax Cheery Stain $5

Minwax prestain $12

Subtotal $29 + $99.75 = $128.75

Upholstery Supplies

(2) 60 SF Black Cow Hides off of Ebay from reputable dealer I checked out before I bid $214 (including shipping.

15 yards premanufacture welting, ebay $22

2 dozen leather buttons , ebay $29

Electric Staple Gun $22 at homedepot

Foam is TBD. It all depends on how the foam looks when I strip the cushions. If there is no cat piss or other smells and the foam looks in good shape I will reuse.

Total to date $415.75…and I don’t even have a finished chair to sit in yet….

However I have repeatedly seen restored Plycraft Chairs and ottomans fetch as much as $1800 on ebay.

So I have two 2X $1800 =$3600 not a bad investment…They no longer make these chairs ….