First Time Stripping (Furniture) - Part 2

Day 2 of stripping! Drawers are done and ready to prime, the next step is the beast of this desk. I started this at 11:30am by spraying the stripper all over the desk, coating it as evenly as possible.

(Note: let me remind you how harmful this stripper is - use protective gloves, and don't spray against the wind.)

I used nearly a whole can for just the drawers, so I was concerned that I might need more stripper for the desk body.

As expected, within about 5 minutes, the paint was already bubbled.  My suggestion: WAIT at least the full 10 minutes before you start clearing the paint off, or longer if you have the patience.

Again, the multiple layers of paint were a challenge.  The desk only had 3 layers of paint over the wood finish, and was easier to go through than the drawers.  Areas that didn't have as much stripper didn't bubble up as much. 

These legs were torture.  Using a flat scraper across a curved surface will make you a little nuts.  For tight corners, angles and curves, use a wire brush, tooth brush or steel wool. I used the paint scraper first, then followed up with a super scour pad.

At this point, I was ready to apply more stripper...

... and it helped! more of the paint was coming off, but it wasn't good enough, and I ran out of stripper.

Hours later...

When all else fails, grab a power tool.  As you can see from the shadows, this is much later in the day, around 5pm.  I broke down and used the power sander, which worked brilliantly.  I started with a 50 grit paper (very coarse) and finished with a 110 grit.  (Higher number = finer sandpaper)  My makeshift dust mask protected my air passages, but my glasses really weren't enough protection from getting bits of sawdust in my eyes. I'm ok.

All stripped, sanded, and ready to prime!

Since the sun was going down, I flipped the desk to prime everything except for the top.

I also primed the drawers, and since I was planning to paint the inside of the wide drawer, I primed that too.  I used about 2 cans of Valspar primer on all of it.

Coming soon: Part 3 & 4 - Painting and Finishing the desk!