Is this worth a look?

a council desk for $875. pictures are not well taken, but owner does say that top has scratches etc.

http://austin.craigslist.org/fuo/3775365430.html

Sure! You can polish out the top scratches with a buffer and some compound. Not hard to do.

Thanks Duane.

I went to look the desk tonight, and finally got it, though I almost just gave up because of the condition does not really meet my expectation. well, the experience is almost like a story, let me share it with you all.

I drove up to the seller's house around 6:30 when it's still bright. It's a tiny, old house at downtown Austin. The seller put the desk on her porch and I thought she just put it there for display to the interested, but actually it's been there outdoor with a cover for quite a while. The condition of the desk pretty disappointed me, there are quite a lot of scratches on the top, some of them are deep and I don't think they can be wooled off. But most disappointing is that I noticed there are 2 of these triangle kind of decorator thing between the leg and the top were snapped off before, and glued back by a unprofessional, so you can clear see ugly yellow glue around the corner.

I immediately told the lady that I was going to pass it because of these damages, I think the top may be refinished, these two things are hard to repair. The lady was very disappointed, she told me that she really wanna get rid of it to make room for her porch, so just give her an offer. I kind of joked to say, I will give you $300 for it. I expect she would say 'No' and I would just leave. Well, she said 'deal'. I couldn't believe it since she asked for $875. I still didn't want it though because I am looking for fine furniture. Even though the desk is pretty solid other than that two damaged parts, I don't think it's fine anymore. But I was in the situation that I just couldn't say No again. Anyway, 300 is not a big deal. Let me just get it.

Then, move. the desk is a little too big to go into my Subaru Outback, and the lady's son, a college boy, offered to deliver it in his bigger SUV. So I said I will pay him some money for the help, and he was delighted. We chatted a little bitter. I asked him why he is home since his college is out of the town. He told me that he had to quit for a semester to make money for the tuition and rent. That made me feel bad, I was just out of school not long time ago, and I know how hard it is to focus on school work without sufficient finance support. Back to the desk, the desk won't go in his SUV either. What to do? We still had his mother's Van, which will definitely fit, but there million things in there that they are going to sell for the weekend garage sale. We spent half an hour to move things out, and eventually put the desk in. I gave the lady $300. The boy said that he would follow me.

Story ends? NO. I was driving, driving. traffic is easy at this time of day, so I didn't pay a lot of attention. But suddenly, the van disappeared in my back mirror. I thought they just lost me, so I waited on the side for a while, they didn't show up. Maybe they just went ahead of me when I didn't notice, I thought. So I speed up to chase them. it's just a straight 8 miles road between the 2 houses, but I couldn't find them. I called them, nobody answered the phone, and the mailbox is full. Would someone really so silly to cheat me $300 for such an endeavor? I thought. Really impossible, but where are they?

I wandered on the road, struggling if I should go back to their house, and my phone ringed. They hit a deer on the road and they couldn't find me after the accident, so they went back. I thought I would just rent a uhaul and pick it up some other day. But they offered that they can deliver again. I drove back to their house, looked the van to make sure it's safe for them to drive. The damage wasn't bad, just hood was little bended and some paint was off. It was a small deer, jumped on their hood and hit the window shield, and ran away. I drove really slow this time to keep them in my sight, and spent almost half hour back to home, and it was 9:30. I gave the boy $100 for the delivery, and the damage, even though it's not my fault. I still feel guilty for them that this could have been avoided if I just didn't go buy their desk. I hope him will back to college to finish his education.

Ok, story is over. The next post, please help me to think how to fix this desk.

Some pictures. I am sorry for the quality of the picture, there is not enough light in the garage at night. I can take some better ones during day time tomorrow. But hope you can get some sense of the condition.

Attachment 4956Attachment 4957Attachment 4958Attachment 4959

Do you think I need a professional to refinish the whole thing? Some scratches are really deep that I don't think can be buffed off. The worst thing is triangle support thing. this is part of decoration, and it's really ugly if it's broken and glued on like that. Duane, do you think I can order 2 of these from Council? Will they still make it, like we buy car parts. I can bear the top, but I really can't bear that. How much do you think a professional will charge to refinish it into fine condition?

Thanks a lot for the help.

Before you feel too guilty, remember the wording of the Craigslist ad and compare the museum-quality description with the reality-bites appearance. Three hundred dollars could just as easily be construed as too much.

That's not too bad - really. As long as the color coat is not compromised you can fix that. Let me come back to this post when I have more time and I'll tell you how to do it. Will cost less than $ 50 in materials and take you a couple hours time. You scored on that for $ 300.

OK here's what you want to do:

Go to the store and buy the following (you may have to get some of this on-line):

* 1 spray can heavy body sanding sealer
* 2 spray cans of either gloss or satin Lacquer (depending on the sheen you want, or you can get one of each)
* Some furniture markers in the color of your desk wood, can be darker but not lighter
* 150 and 220 grit and 600 grit sandpaper.
* 0000 Steel Wool
* Mineral Spirits.

Procedure:

1) Wipe down the whole desk with mineral spirits. Get all the old gunk off.

2) Steel wool the top to level it, stay with the grain.

3) Color in any bare wood with the markers, smudge it with your fingers, then wool it down.

4) Take your sanding sealer and make sure its shaken well so it doesn't 'spit' from the nozzle. Lay sanding sealer on the top, spraying more into nicks and scratches as needed. This will dry fast (about 15 minutes for a moderate coat). Do not sand until its dry. Once it is dry, use your 150 grit to sand over the depression areas and a light general sanding over the whole top. LIGHT ON THE WHOLE TOP! Do another layer and sanding on depressions, repeat until the depressions are filled and level with the desk top. Sometimes this can take up to 10 coats or more. Keep at it, and sand it down without breaking through to the color coat. No need to dust off the sanding sealer, just spray over the stuff you just sanded.

5) Once you get the top leveled and smooth with the sealer, then sand with 220. Do not sand in arcs, keep it straight with the grain. Dust off and wipe down when done.

6) Now you do your clears. Take TWO cans of the lacquer, well shaken so they don't spit,and with one in each hand spray them at the same time moving your body, not swinging the cars in an arc. Cross the streams when you spray. This gives you the equal of a spray gun finish. Just one can will leave valleys in the finish. Let this dry to a hard finish, at least 1 hour. Wet sand to 600 grit and then do it again. When done the second time, wool the table with # 0000 Steel wool and then follow with a good coat of paste wax. You're done!

As to the fretwork, use what you have, just lightly sand it to flush any jagged edges and or put some wood putty in it if they're severe, and then touch up with the markers, then clear it with the lacquer.

Good luck

Duane - these are great instructions. Perhaps this can be made a sticky??

Duane, thank you so much for this detailed instruction (and yes, it should be a sticky as it'll be so helpful when buy used quality furniture).

I may disappoint you a little bitter though because I still don't have the guts to take care of this desk by myself. Well, the excuse is, it's a big one (72x36) and perhaps an expensive one when it's new. I think it's still in production in Councill, just like this one http://www.councill.com/executive-de...e-office-table

So at this moment, I am still thinking to hire a professional to restore it. Some furniture repair guy claims online that they can bring old furniture (much worse condition than mine in their examples) back to like new condition. If I can spend under $500 to make this desk like new, I will be really satisfied. under $1000 total for a like new councill desk, what more can I ask for?

Indeed, we have been shopping for office furniture for a long time. And the problem of coming to this site frequently is, those furniture you used to think beautiful is now pieces of junk. At the same time, it's difficult to afford the real good ones that we've learned from you how to appreciate. Before I got this desk, I think I almost gave up the pursuit of real fine ones because my wife thinks I am crazy, so we are going to spend $2000 on a Hooker like desk to replace our Costco and office depot junks. Now I got a chance to upgrade to a like new councill under the budget, and I really don't want to screw this up. I did an thorough inspection of the desk, except the problems I stated, it is really solid. For some parts, it uses veneers too, but the veneers are much thinker, and inbetween is still solid wood. I don't think a hooker desk can even come close.

Your instruction will not be wasted though. I have a small buffet, which I refinished a while ago. I think I did pretty good on the legs and drawers, but I messed up the top (a beautiful tiger maple veneer) with paint brush and poly (another reason I got scared). I am going to redo it using your tutorial, and hopefully I will gain a little confidence back.

Give it a try! Once you do it, you will have mastered the skill, its not really hard - the difficult part is figuring out the steps which I have done for you. You can tweak the formula above if needed, too. Sometimes I will add in toner coats and the like. You can't screw it up, worst you can do is make a mess of things and then take it to a pro. I have literally done the above out in customer's driveway when we've driven several hours to get to their home and discover a nick in the top (I keep a kit in the truck with all the above in it).

One mistake you may have had is using a paint brush and poly. When you first try this sort of thing there is a tendency to COAT IT (Lay it on thick) and that's a mistake. You put your finish products on 'dry' in light layers and build them up, and never use a brush. Most polys I will wipe on with a rag, and at most I will use a foam brush, but never one with bristles as you can never get that poly leveled that way. Maybe One day (if I ever get caught up) I'll make a short video showing how to do this.

I am definitely going to try it, but on the buffet top first. I am actually tempted to do the desk as well. But my wife is discouraging me...(you've screwed up a lot of things in the house already, bla,bla,bla..., ok I admitted, I did screw up some car DIY projects), Anyway, I called up a local guy who gets good reviews on Yelp, and he is gonna come the weekend for an estimate. If the guy estimates over $500, I will seriously think about it as my second one after the buffet experiment. I will report back for the buffet by using Dr. Duane's tutorial.