Just found this link over at the Early Television Museum: http://www.earlytelevision.org/rca_1945_projection.html
Very cool series of news clipping on the development of the RCA Schmidt Projection System. Nice read!

Steve

The wood veneer is really beautiful! The main cabinet is stripped and stained. I'll be stripping the flip up monitor screen tomorrow. I tried lacquer on one of the doors today and got some dimpling in the finish, I think the stripper is causing problems. I think I'm going to wash it down with denatured alcohol tomorrow and see if that helps.

What process and chemicals are you using for the cabinet? It looks great!


Todd

The dimpling you're seeing in the lacquer could very well be stripper residue, but it could also have another cause: Silicones.

Beginning in 1958 with the introduction of S.C. Johnson's Pledge spray furniture polish, silicones were added to polishes to make them buff up quickly and to add some protection against fingermarks and spills. Silicones are pretty impervious to a wide range of chemicals, and they don't evaporate on their own. Their effect on finishing materials is a little bit like trying to mix oil and water; the two are incompatible.

Fortunately for you, there is an easy way to remove them; a wash-down with mineral spirits cuts silicone. Even better, the same wash-down will get rid of stripper residue.

In a WELL-VENTILATED AREA, wet a clean cloth with mineral spirits. The cloth should be really wet. Wash down the entire cabinet with the cloth, then rub dry with another clean cloth. Repeat about three times, and you should be good.

Sometimes, depending on the housekeeper who took care of the piece, you'll find a heavy residue of silicones on the top surface, and none - or almost none - on the vertical surfaces. Some housewives just concentrate on shining up the top of a piece, and don't pay much attention to the rest. This may call for some extra passes on the top. Silicone residue that is not removed will make it absolutely impossible to get an uncratered finish with lacquer.

I use mineral spirits to remove stripper instead of water. First, I scrape gently with a cherished old broad-bladed putty knife that has an edge I know is smooth. Then I mop on mineral spirits and use No. 0000 steel wool and clean old rags to remove the remaining stripper and dissolved finish. This automatically takes care of silicone, and keeps sanding to a minimum, since you're not raising the grain of the wood with water. It also helps to prevent loosening veneer.

Hope all this helps a bit.

Sandy

Thanks for the input on the mineral spirits, I'll give it a try. I'll probably need to re-stain? I'll try this on a small piece first, see if it works.

Steve

Sandy's right. Surface prep is most important. I, too, use Mineral Spirits (liberally) on stripped wood surfaces.

Steve:

Whether you need to re-stain depends on the type of stain you used. With Minwax or something similar, you may need to. With an aniline dye stain, you probably won't.

That is a beautiful cabinet, with gorgeous figuring in the veneer, and a great job of book-matching. It's well worth any amount of painstaking work, and I'm glad it's in such good and appreciative hands.

I'm going to be keeping tabs on this thread with the greatest of interest; I can't wait to see that set looking like it should again.

Well I've applied the mineral spirited twice liberally and I'm going to hit it two more times before the day is done. I'll let it sit several days and then try a test on the inside of one of the doors with the lacquer later this week.

Steve

Well I gave up on the lacquer, Multiple cleaning and it still was riddled with fish eye so I gave up. Polyurethane when on like glass. I have 4 coats on everything and then run out. I'm going to let it set for a couple days, steel wool it and put on a couple of finish coat on Wednesday. This isn't the first time I tried lacquer, I just have never been able to make it work! I am very pleased at how it's coming along. the front panel are to die for! This is the most beautiful television cabinet I own. As you walk around it the grain actually changes!







Here's a reminder of what I started with...

Before:



after:

That will be museum or showroom quality when all is said and done.

The contrast from panel to panel is breath taking! Just looking at the work that went into creating the case, it's clear this was the top of the line for RCA in 1948.

Steve

Steve:

I'm sorry to hear that mineral spirits didn't clear the problem that's causing fisheyes.

However, you have done exactly the right things in response to the problem. One, you seem to understand that you're not responsible for whatever has happened to the cabinet in the last forty or fifty years. And two, you've figured out something that works, and you're doing it.

It's possible that someone wiped down the cabinet with a silicone-based polish to make it look better at some point, after the finish was so seriously eroded. If that happened, the silicone would have gotten a chance to sink into bare wood, and you never will get it corrected if that's the case.

So, ya done good. I look forward to the rest of your restoration.

Thanks Sandy for all your help and support on what has been a very frustrating last 24 hours. I'm absolutely in love with the front panel wood grain! I'm just relieved this refinishing mess is behind me!

Steve

Thanks for your very generous comment, it's very much appreciated.

Steve

No need to feel apologetic about the polyurethane. Although there is a lot of peer pressure to use lacquer, just go with whatever does the best job of recreating the original finish in color and sheen.

Some of the best modern polyurethanes give excellent results, and in my opinion can match the original finish better than some modern lacquers. Most polyurethanes are too viscous and create a visibly thick coating with rounded edge beads, etc. That looks lousy. But the one I keep coming back to is Varethane Professional Semi-Gloss (in the black can). About three coats is just right, with fairly agressive sanding in between coats.

Tough as nails and gives a sheen which matches the original finishes on these cabinets pretty well. Not perfect, but pretty close, and better than many modern lacquers.

I've seen the bubbling problem with stripper residue before, and always use a wipe down with a liberal amount of paint thinner, which solves the problem. It's also a very fun step, because the wet paint thinner reveals the beauty of the wood, albeit only very temporarily until it dries (a few minutes). A spectacular moment, and one you won't see again if you match the original coloring, which usually tones down the grain quite a bit, either with a well chosen stain, a pigment, or toner (varnish stain is a similar option if you use polyurethane and are OK with uniform coloration).

I hadn't heard about the silicone residue problem, but it sure makes sense, and I'm glad it was discussed here. I'll keep that in mind for the future, in case I come across a similar situation.

I can see you're having fun with the cabinet restoration! I'm usually just the opposite -- I get the set fully restored electrically, and then take some time to work up the motivation to go after the cabinet. I don't enjoy that part of the operation nearly as much.

Hi Tom

It's not that I like refinishing, I just want to get it out of the way! Then once the electronics are finished I can do a quick final assembly right into the awaiting finished cabinet and it's done. Once the cabinet refinishing is done I always feel like I'm "Over the Hump" psychologically. Although with this big a project I have a way to go...

Steve

The problem you are having with the lacquer is called "fish eye" It is most often caused by silicone as others here have mentioned. Mineral spirits, Naptha or products specially formulated for removing silicone may, I emphasize "may" help. This fish eye problem is VERY common when using a lacquer finsih. The problem is that you are only Diluting the silicone and trying to wipe if off. This will work fairly well on a non porous surface like a car finish. However on wood, when you strip the original finish, some of that silicone is apt to get into the open pores of the wood. At that point it is nearly impossible to remove the silicone.

The method, I and many refinishers use, is to seal the silicone into the wood using a three pound cut shellac. I ususlly use two applications of shellac after the wood has been stained. Then I sand lightly with 220 to give the shellac some "tooth" so the lacquer will adhere properly to the shellac surface. Lacquer does not have an affinity to shellac. So if you seal the pores of the wood with Shellac, you need to rough up the surface of the shellac so the lacquer has something to key into, like it would have done to the, now sealed, pores of the wood.

I also use a "wetting agent" in my lacquer. You can get it at a store that sells automotive finishing products. They typically call it "fish eye eliminator" You add a few drops to the the lacquer mix and it reduces "surface tension" of the lacquer so it is less apt to create fish eyes when you spray any surface.

Pre-catalized automovie enamels also work well as a substitute for lacquers. They generally come in high gloss only, but you can add "flateners" to what ever degree you need to cut the brilliance.

I also like polyurethanes, but I like the fast drying features of lacquer most of all and that is what I use most of the time.

Yoda:

I'm taking all this in with interest; it sounds like you've developed some excellent strategies for dealing with silicone. I have never personally had any difficulty with silicone that wasn't taken care of by mineral spirits, but there's always a first time....

Thanks.

Very Pretty...!

Lastly this evening is doing a test fit on the monitor hood.