Starting out:   Top had some blushes (not a problem to repair) but a few scratches, so will plan to strip and refinish.

Getting ready to touch up the legs that are in decent shape and reglue the chairs (darned the drywall screws)

 

 

 

And each piece only needs one tag, numeric in clockwise order, not "left front" on one end and "left back" on the other.

 

 

Shouldn’t be hard to get a close color. Most manufacturers use only a hand full of colors. 

Yeah, I  probably have 40+ colors but most  often used one of five or so.

A furniture company in production doesn’t use 40. When your trying  to match older colors your playing with years of tint and wood. 
 

My table and chairs do not match. The chairs are American made by a table and chair company in mMissouri, but the table I bought wa# made overseas. I never see my chairs on Facebook for sale, but always see that table top. 

Shop finally warmed up a bit above "chalk temperature" so I got the first chair glued back together.

 

The chairs and legs have been re-glued. The big tenons were drywall screwed.  The small ones all had pneumatic nails in them.  After getting the first one apart with difficulty, I only injected chair glue into the nailed ones.   It worked ok as they were not terribly loose.

 

Then touched up with touch up pens and toners.  

 

On to stripping the table top

 

Then letting it dry and sanding:

 

 

 

I tried to get a stain that was reasonably close, but, of course, it's nothing like what was on the outside of the can or the color sheet.

 

Finishing rule:  When using a new product (or wood) or procedure, test of scrap or a hidden area. 

 

This is on the underside of the table.  It would have been a mistake to just start staining the top without a test plan.

 

 

Addendum to rule: Including all the way, including the finish.   (Some) finishes may add their own color to the mix.

One coat of varnish on.  Helped a little.

 

 

Finish rule:  Stain gets you to the right church, glaze gets you to the right pew.   AKA It ain't over until the fat lady sings.

 

Once the varnish dries tomorrow, I'll try some of my glazes.  My most used are Guardsman Warm Brown, Van Dyke, and Burnt Umber.   Van Dyke is a dark brown with some black undertones, Burnt Umber has some dark red. 

 

Diversion:

Doing touch up work, toners (finish with color in them) were often used.  That's another option.  But in my opinion, toners need to be sprayed, in light coats.  This avoids the Polyshades mess.  In my experience, most factory furniture is finished with a lacquer toner.  Spray on two light coats, wait 30 minutes, pack and go.  Also lacquer finishes are easiest to repair, so transit damage is repairable.

 

Here is a table that I did a "spit and polish" on with toners for the furniture bank.    A little bit of cleaning and a light sanding.  Then a dark toner in the middle and  a clear coat around the perimeter.

Before:

 

30 minutes later:

 

... grandson's dining table  to be continued.

Tried out some glazes today.  Will need to dry for a day and then seal in, but getting close.  The nice thing about glazes as their workability, I can add more, wipe off more, mix two at once, a little more here and a little less there, add a second coat after the first has been sealed in; it ain't over until the fat lady sings.

 

Stain on this morning.

I was taking a Tai Chi class this afternoon and the instructor said during one of the exercises, "It's like 'The Karate Kid', wax on, wax off."   I told him that morning I kept repeating, "Stain on, stain off."

Progress report:

 

Once the stain was on, I put on two light coats of varnish.   As expected, the color was still too red.   So I put on a coat of VanDyke glaze this morning.  The nice thing about glazes is you can apply lighter or heavier as needed.   This will dry at least a day then a coat of varnish to seal it in.  Then see where we are.  You can repeat glazes if needed.

 

In progress:   You  can see the before, during  , and after results.

 

 

Applied and set to dry:

That looks nice Kieth.

Got delivered last weekend, at the wedding, and installed and set up today.  That apartment is a lot smaller than I would have imagined.

 

 

 

I had also made a small table that could be used as a nightstand, end table, or TV stand.  I just did it and it turned out to just fit in a needed spot.

That table and chair refurb really turned out nice!

I forgot to mention, due to the pneumatic nails in most of the small joints on the chairs, I thought I'd use some of my Lee Valley "Chair Doctor Glue."   It had gone bad and LV was not shipping it.  I don't know if it was because of freezing or if they discontinued it.   We had a couple of people from Franklin Intl. speak at the woodworking club and I asked if they had a solution.   They do sell a low viscosity glue, but only in 5 gal containers.  I needed about 2 oz.  They checked their supply in their testing lab and shipped me a 16 oz bottle for free.  That worked great.  I got the chair joints that were drywall screwed apart and reglued with regular PVA glue and added new wedges.  This took care of the legs and outside spindles of the back.   

 

Otherwise, I pulled out my touch up kit and with application of aerosol toners and touch up markers got the table legs and chair parts all fixed up.

 

Not a bad deal for $10 from a thrift store, incidentally about half a mile down the street from my former house.  Never knew it was there.

That set looks exactly like the set I grew up with.

 

Very nice save, Keith!