Diary of a Stripper.... part II

Things can get pretty ugly when stripping....

Did some more work on my desk project this week. Upon examination of the construction of the desk I decided to unscrew the top so I could turn it over, which makes cleaning the old paint and varnish off WAY easier than trying to scrape into corners and stuff like that. You can see that under the desk in the middle it looks as though someone had used it to sharpen their pencil point or perhaps they were just scribbling?

Of course then it hits me that a lot of the other pieces would be easier to strip and clean up if they were removed too, sooooooo I started dismantling one half of the casing.

This is kinda fun but also nerve-wracking because I dont want to break anything! Luckily the glue is pretty dried out and brittle so most of the joints are coming apart fairly easy. I'm leaving half of it together and will work on the other half until it's clean, sanded and all re-assembled, then I'll do the other half. This is so I wont forget how it all goes together!

All the little pieces labeled so they go back in their correct locations!

The little apron pieces along the bottom of the sides are in pretty rough shape. I may try to make new ones instead of fixing these. Only 3 of them had nails which leads me to conclude that originally they were all glued on but over the years 3 had come loose and someone toe-nailed them to keep them in place.

A Lana Turner pic so Joe wont be angry with me.

To be continued...