woopsie! I blew up the heat gun

Today, with the help of my husband with his walker, we got the sewing machine cabinet out into the workshop. Although still heavy, without the machine attached it was a bit easier to lift. We only had to carry it across the gravel driveway and up the gravel path to the workshop so it wasn't too much of a strain on him hopefully.

He had explained to me that the top of the lid was veneer and that it should peel of with heat.  He also explained that we could buy new veneer to replace it.  That was helpful advice indeed because I would have spent hours and hours sanding down the top in the hope that I would eventually get a smooth surface to stain and seal.

So I set about with the heat gun and a scraper (or two or three, well actually four) to remove the veneer. I was going great guns too until the flipping heat gun started to wail, then spark and finally smoke. Well maybe, I thought, if I leave it off a little while it will be OK. Well so much for that theory, I plugged it back in, it sparked some more, stopped working and smoked a lot more.

I did get quite a lot done though.  Now to order a new heat gun to be able to finish it.

The surface underneath is made up of different grained wood so I think it will be best to put new veneer on it, maybe we will get a chance to look for some tomorrow, if not it will be another online purchase.

Meantime, while waiting to get the heat gun and veneer I will set about doing the repair to the frame underneath.  Thursday might be the day to do that.