Sunday, December 18, 2011

Sunday Update - Holiday Break

I decided to take a short holiday break for the next couple of weeks. This way I can catch up, take care of the holidays, and not worry about posting to the blog. So thanks for stopping by, and see you next year. Posting should resume after the first of the year. HAPPY HOLIDAYS.

Merry Christmas, Yuletide blessing, blessed winter solstice, happy Kwanzaa, happy Hanukkah, and a joyous Festivus for the Rest of Us. Warm wishes for the holidays !
Whatever you may celebrate , Happy Holidays !

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The Sanding Tutorial

I got most of the paint and canvas off the steam trunk with the paint scraper, this will help make it a little bit easier when it comes time to sand our project. In order to avoid gouging the wood with the paint scraper I left the really stubborn canvas and paint to be sanded off later. 

I'm not going to go into great detail here. Sanding wood really isn't rocket science. Simply roll up your sleeves and start sanding. The biggest tip I can give you is to always try and sand with the grain of the wood. This really is the most important part, SAND WITH THE GRAIN OF THE WOOD!  Bold,capital letters, italics, exclamation mark ! If you sand against the grain, you will see the scratches when you try and stain your finished product. Tip number 2 , use a sanding block whenever possible. This gives you a nice even sanded surface and will help avoid putting grooves or waves in the finished product.

With that said, this is how I attacked this part of the project.

I purchased a sanding sponge from the hardware store. I went with a coarse grade sponge. I used the course sponge to get the areas that had a lot of leftover canvas, paint, and glue. Once the sponge lost its coarseness I wrapped it with a medium grade sandpaper and used the sponge as my sanding block.You could also get a small block of wood and use that instead of the sanding sponge.

Now sand the entire trunk down with the medium grade sand paper wrapped around the sanding sponge. Take off all the leftover canvas, paint and glue. Along the edges and by the locking mechanisms, and latches is the only place I went against the grain when needed. Sand as close to the mechanisms as possible, and when the canvas, glue and paint is removed then take your time and sand with the grain to remove any cross scratching you may have created. This is the most important part, anytime you sand against the grain, sand equally with the grain to remove the scratching.

Finally, before you stain the trunk, you want to sand the entire trunk again with a fine sand paper, and then repeat the entire process again with an extra fine sandpaper. Paying special attention to any areas you may have sanded against the grain and any  gouges that may have been created by the paint scraper.

Take your time, be patient, and the extra effort should be rewarding in the finished product.

I spent an additional $9.98 on sanding sponge and sand paper. I'm sure I will be buying more sand paper in the near future. I was short on cash the day I purchased this stuff, so I only bought what I absolutely needed. I still have to buy the fine and extra fine sand paper for finishing. I spent an additional 3.5 hours sanding the front, and will be sanding away throughout the week to try and finish this part of the project up.

Project time for this post : 3 hours 30 minutes
Total time spent on project so far : 19 hours 45 minutes
Total project cost so far : $22.62 USD

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Sunday Update On Sunday

Finally a Sunday update posted on Sunday! As usual the holidays are making things a bit hectic, yet I have found time to make some progress on this antique steam trunk. I started sanding the wood and getting the rest of the canvas and paint removed from the steam trunk panels. It really is starting to look better already.

I put in about 3.5 hours this week sanding and that was only the front of the trunk. This week I'll post a tutorial on how I sanded the steam trunk panels. Unfortunately I ran into a bit of bad luck. It seems at one time this steam trunk was severely damaged. There is a crack going right across the front and some severe damage to the middle panel on the left hand side. I circled the damage in the pictures below. Whoever fixed the trunk panel originally used a very ugly black wood filler, I guess this explains the hideous pink paint. However, as I sand the panel it seems they used an excessive amount of wood filler and for the most part this isn't as bad as it seems. What to do about this is another question all together.

I'm going to keep sanding away at it and see if I can make this wood filler as inconspicuous as possible. Then maybe try and cover it with a dark stain. This will help keep the rustic look I'm trying for. If that doesn't work I may try to replace the panel or cover it with some kind of mural on just the center panel. I'm hoping the dark stain solution will work. Here are the pictures.
Most of the canvas and paint stripped from the steam trunk. Next step sand off the excess glue, canvas and left over paint from the steam trunk panels. 

After sanding with most of the paint and canvas completely removed.The purple circle highlights the damage to the center panel, most of the black is wood filler. The black line running between the two trunk straps is also filler. This poses a small problem.
So this coming week, time permitting ,  I am going to try and post a sanding tutorial, remove the inside trunk lining, and remove the damaged trunk handles from the sides of the steam trunk. I'll also try and get all the tutorials posted in the blog as I make progress.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Canvas And Paint Stripped Trunk

I finally got most of the paint and canvas stripped from the trunk. I didn't post a Sunday update this week because there was nothing to update. For the most part nothing got done on the trunk till this morning. I woke up this morning more than a little upset that a whole week had passed and there was no progress to report in the blog. That being my motivation, I decided to spend most of my afternoon stripping trunk canvas.

It's not that I'm being lazy here, but with the holidays approaching things have been a bit hectic. My family has a small retail business, so the holidays are always hectic for everyone. I try to help out with the family business and this sometimes gets in the way of my personal life. I'll do my best over the next few weeks to fit in some trunk restoration time and post the results here. Please be patient.

With that said, I spent about 4 hours stripping paint and canvas on the trunk this afternoon. I left two of the side panels because I'm going to be removing the handles in the next couple days. I figure once the handles are off it will be easier to strip the canvas on the sides. I also left two small panels on the back because I'm not sure if I'm going to paint the hinges on the back of the trunk lid. If I do paint the hinges I think it might be a good idea to leave the canvas on there to protect the wood, but then I might chip the fresh paint when I remove the canvas, so I'm not sure about that right now.

Anyway, here are the pictures of the trunk with most of the canvas stripped off. The scraper put a few small gouges in the trunk wood and I didn't want to gouge the wood anymore so I thought I would try stripping the remainder of the canvas with a medium course sandpaper and then go over it again with a fine sandpaper. The few small gouges should be easy enough to sand out. 

 
Most of the canvas and paint stripped from the trunk. I will go over this with a medium course sandpaper and then a fine course sandpaper. I'll post the results and instructions for that when I start that process.

I left the canvas where the hinges are. I'm not sure whether I'm going to paint the hinges first and remove the paint later or remove the paint and canvas and then paint the hinges. I'll decide on this shortly.
I received the trunk with this broken handle. I didn't remove the canvas from this panel because I felt it would be easier to do once the handles are removed. The other side is the same way.
I'm going to start shopping around for some trunk parts. If I can't find handles I like, I'm going to make them myself from some good strong leather.

Project timd for this post : 4 hours 15 minutes
Total time spent on project so far : 16 hours 15 minutes
Total project cost so far : $12.64 USD