My fingers are numb as I type this, from sanding for probably 2 hours at least. I had bought a cute little French-style end table at an estate sale a few months ago. It was painted a nondescript gray, and I thought, "Oh, I'll put a silver glaze on it". So I cleaned and sanded and filled a few dings and primed the bare & repaired spots. A few weeks ago I started painting it with a silver glaze I had used on a ceiling which turned out great. The glaze was waterbased, mixed with silver craft paint. Well, after about the fourth coat, you know how sometimes you get a little piece of fiber in your wet paint and pull it out before it dries? I did this, and ALL the coats of glazed started peeling right off where I had touched the wet paint!
SO, today I decided I would sand it down really good and start all over. I spent the aforementioned couple of hours (at least) sanding with my electric sanders, then hand sanding. It was ONLY in the mid-nineties today, felt like a cold front! Actually fairly pleasant to work outdoors. I didn't sand all the silver off completely, but I got it nice and smooth and figured that should be more than adequate.
So I went outside after dinner to finish up and I decided to wipe off the sanding dust with a damp rag. Well, guess what? The remaining silver glaze residue started rolling right off like a film of dried glue! I could not believe it. I probably could have just washed it all off instead of spending all that time sanding.
Sigh. It's so frustrating to feel you have wasted hours and hours on a project. Now I want to use silver leaf on the table instead of silver paint. I think I will spray it with primer first just to make sure I don't have a repeat!
Any suggestions or sympathy will be most welcome.
Carol in Tulsa
