kaberett | further to my Terrible Bureau Adventures

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Thank you all lots for advice on ways to approach replacing the writing pad on my bureau! Some of you said that if I provided photos you might be able to counsel me further in my folly, so Here They Are...

More photos Can Be Made Available Upon Application but turnaround times are likely to be as drawn-out as ever...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

hairyears

Everyone should have one!

My 1970's melamine bureau is far less stylish, and probably a great deal less durable: but the fundamental design is sound and everything (monitor included) gets neatly put away.

For special values of 'neatly' that mean 'out of sight'.

Edited (Corrected a typo that makes me want to 'fic ' Escritoires of Gor' ) Date: 2023-05-07 09:51 am (UTC)

From:

vass

Oh, it's lovely. My advice, as a person with no relevant knowledge or skills at all and who is too far away to help, is that if you think you might want to sand and refinish/stain/polish/or whatnot the wood, do that part before replacing the writing pad.

From:

pipisafoat

I am not a person with Advice, but I look forward to the relevant "after" photos!

-Wolf (sa/they)

From:

momijizukamori

Okay, so - first step is to get all the old fabric and glue off. A metal scraper or straight razor blade will be your friend here. Start by putting some hot water on it, as hot as your tap will go. If the glue feels slippery really quickly and has a sort of barn smell, it's hide glue, which will reactivate in hot water and you can scrape it off pretty easily. If it softens a little and goes more opaque, it's probably PVA - hot water will help some though I've been told vinegar softens it better? Have not experimented. If water does nothing, try a heavier solvent (I usually do rubbing alcohol first, and if that doesn't work, acetone). If *that* doesn't work it is down to a lot of elbow grease to scrape/sand it off.

You will also want to clean the grooves around the edge of the panel - start with something pointy and metal (thin knitting needle, hobby knife, w/e) to get most of the crud out, and then you can run a folded-up piece of sandpaper down in there to finish up.

You'll want to cut your fabric as big as the top plus however deep the grooves go, and you'll want to finish the edges - but NOT by hemming/turning them under. Instead just do a narrow zigzag stitch along the edge, if you have access to a sewing machine, or get a bottle of fray check and use that on the edges otherwise.

Not sure what to advise for the surface glue, though if it's something watery like PVA, you'll need to back the fabric first so it doesn't soak through. PVA, starch glue, or a mix of both are what's usually used for gluing bookcloth to covers - starch will reactivate if it gets wet, though.

To get the edges of the fabric into the groove, the easiest would be to acquire a screen tool - they basically look like pizza cutters with smaller unsharp wheels, and they're used to shove the screen and screen spline into the groove on screen windows or screen doors. Plastic ones are like $5 here, at least. You can also jerry-rig something else to shove it down but the screen tool makes it easy to get the pressure even the whole way down.

From:

kaberett

This is FANTASTIC, thank you so much, and I have access to both a basic sewing machine and an overlocker (though the latter needs some TLC...)

From:

momijizukamori

Oh, yeah, if you can do an overlock stitch that'll be a little sturdier than a zigzag! I just assume my friends who aren't posting sewing projects... don't have one, haha.