Plantation Chair

Tag: apparatus instrument, Painting lawn chairs , wood stain
From: http://www.apparatus-instrument.com/

Q. I have some beautiful chairs white plastic, but they become very dirty and I can not keep them clean. Can I paint them? Also, my refrigerator has become all pockmarked with rust spots. It has an orange peel finish, I can not sand the spots. Is there an easy way to paint?
GULA BARBARA, Dedham
A. For chairs, you can paint them, such as a darker color to not show dirt as much. Use an aerosol spray paint called Fusion special plastic. It is made by Krylon and is sold in paint stores. As for the refrigerator, the rough surfaces are difficult to handle. You can try this: wire brush to remove as much rust as possible. For the left, treat with Rust Reformer or other brand that contains phosphoric acid, which turns the rust black and makes paint. Then spray with a spray oil-based good. Think twice about it, bite the bullet and have painted professionally. It's expensive, but they do a good job.
Q. I stained a door and trim in my house with Minwax, but when I finished, I found it was much too dark. What can I do to lighten it? The wood had a sort of pre-stain treatment.
Cynthia Watkins, Durham, NH
A. You can not lighten it, you have to sand all the bare wood. The pre-stain treatment (with sealing stain) was done to make the stain go on more evenly, and may also reduce the amount of the stain penetrated, making it easier to sand. With the bare wood showing, find a lighter stain, and put it on sparingly. The way to do this is to soak a cotton pad (made from a folded cloth) in the spot, get rid of it and wipe the stain. It is sloppy (wear gloves), but it allows you to control the amount of dye is happening. Make a small area before taking a step back and admire. This will be a guaranteed success. Sure, being careful to overlap the stain dries quickly and you will find it hard to blend the edges.
Q. I have my mother's old chopping bowl, the one she used for years. It is very tough inside, and I keep as a souvenir on a table. Somehow water got into it and made an ugly brown stain of water. How can I bring?
Davina SCHUMAN, reading
A. You can sand, but that would never do for such an old object. Thus, instead of sanding, you can try to find a carpenter who could burst the plane or stain. "Gouge" sounds a little drastic, but a gouge is a curved scissors designed to remove thin layers of wood. A worker is Peter Follansbee, a friend who is a carpenter at Plymouth Plantation and will not be caught dead with sandpaper. Peter's call and tell him that the other Peter (me) has suggested. To give you an idea of what Peter does: One of his pieces of furniture in the Museum's permanent collection of the Fine Arts. That's fine if you is not dead.
Breeding birds solution
We had two ideas on how dandy prevent birds from nesting on a ledge under a window air conditioner. The handyman suggested tacking hardware cloth (steel mesh) under the unit to keep the birds out.
Here's what Susan said in an email: "My 85 year old mother, Mary, came with a solution 15 years ago. She put aluminum foil crunched in the door, shiny side up. Birds do not like the texture or brightness. None of the nests for the past 15 years! cheap fix. "
MBR of Arlington: "The birds of the air around my window conditionersdrove me crazy last summer, and I found a lot of shit when I took them out in the fall. But I found a solution that seems much easier than the steel mesh that you suggest. I have a hint of birds in my local equipment designed to keep pigeo.