UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum - View Single Post

Uncle Bulgaria · 3rd Aug 2019, 1:33 am

I was told when I worked with a joiner that cabinet scrapers were for finishing hardwoods instead of sandpaper. As an oak veneer (say) is a hardwood just in a thin section, a scraper should be a good way to remove flaking varnish, and easier to keep flat than sanding to avoid going through the corners. This same joiner used to make me scrapers out of old saw blades - those ones that can't be sharpened because of their hardened teeth.

I used them on my uncle's Bush SUG61 and it came up a treat, with no damage to the veneer as the material removed each pass was so little compared to the varnish layer.

I would have thought for flatting down a large length of timber a jointing plane would be the better option and a lot easier on the thumbs! Perhaps there are larger scrapers than I have used, but I've never been able to take off enough material to consider using them for levelling.

3rd Aug 2019, 1:33 am	#8
Uncle Bulgaria Nonode Join Date: May 2016 Location: Cornwall, UK. Posts: 2,329	Re: Scrape your radio cabinet I was told when I worked with a joiner that cabinet scrapers were for finishing hardwoods instead of sandpaper. As an oak veneer (say) is a hardwood just in a thin section, a scraper should be a good way to remove flaking varnish, and easier to keep flat than sanding to avoid going through the corners. This same joiner used to make me scrapers out of old saw blades - those ones that can't be sharpened because of their hardened teeth. I used them on my uncle's Bush SUG61 and it came up a treat, with no damage to the veneer as the material removed each pass was so little compared to the varnish layer. I would have thought for flatting down a large length of timber a jointing plane would be the better option and a lot easier on the thumbs! Perhaps there are larger scrapers than I have used, but I've never been able to take off enough material to consider using them for levelling.