Take Me To Your Leader

My friend loaned me a respirator... and dude? I *want* one! (Dear Santa...) Breathing through it was surprisingly easy, and I didn't smell the acetone at all. The Darth Vader sounds were entertaining, and even though it got all drippy inside, it wasn't at all icky. The seal is great and comfortable too! No, I'm not loopy on fumes. (Well, I don't *think* I am...)

Here's how things looked when I started tonight:

and when I finished:

Can you see the difference? No, not the light levels. And yeah, the drawers are now empty of stuff, ready for refinishing, but not that either. No, ignore the fact that the tools and stuff are in different locations. Look closely at the upper left corner and the trim around the top... can you see a difference yet? No? *sigh* Well, there is a difference, although minor.

Here's a close-up on the corner that spent the most time on:

The corner in the bottom right has pretty much all of the glue stripped (an area about one square foot), and the spot to the left of that corner is mostly stripped. This is going to take much longer than I had initially budgeted. But I think I'm okay with that.

I'm beginning to wonder if maybe those black stains *are* ink, rather than iron... although I'm not sure it'll make much of a difference in how to attempt to remove (or at least minimize) them...