Holy cow Keith, you done a marvelous job on that!  Very worthy of a family heirloom again

8 hours ago, FlGatorwood said:

Since you said you don't turn, how did you restore the legs?  They look good as new from the picture.  

 

Also, how did you strip the old finish off?  

The front and back legs were the same and the ones in back were in better shape.   I disassembled the front ones and replaced the turnings with a tapered leg.  Then reattached the "wings" and switched the front and back.   Having simpler legs in the back of a piece is common.

I have some NMP stripper left from when I was doing refinishing work.  In retrospect, I should have used my "flow over" system instead of the gel.  But that would have meant hauling a 4x8' tray system up the steps and outside, then taking it back down and moving it back into storage.  It uses a recycling pump and has a brush on the end of the hose.  It uses a less viscous stripper.  You pump some on, let it sit for a while, then go back with the pump on and brush into the detail parts.  It always worked well for chairs with all the little parts and joints. 

 

As I did the chest, I used some detail scrapers, picks, brass bristle brushes, acetone and sandpaper.  The rail in the back of the top was also causing difficulties.  I ended up taking it off and pulling off the curved pieces on the ends.  Then I could get underneath things and get a clean top panel.  I sawed off the turnings on each end of the squarish back piece and cleaned them up individually, then glued them back together.  (this is a common way to repair broken spindles that I used when encountering repairs)

 

Also  notice the little eggbeater drill there.   I had to drill some new pilot holes and a power drill had too big of a chuck to get into where it needed to go.   The chuck on the eggbeater is about 3/4" or less and fit in there just fine.

Here's a photo of the new back legs, in process:

7 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

Certainly is a first class job, well done!

Very nice.   Danl