Started with this table that was picked up at NYC market, it's half of a pair. The tables had a thick,thick veneer slathered all over them, wobbled, and had these small tiles on the top that kept popping off. I first knocked off the tiles with a hammer and flat head screw driver(teeny tiny were used to keep the tiles down?), then took apart the shelves.

Once the table was taken apart I strapped on a mask and started up my sheet sander with a 50 grit paper. I had to go through a number of sheets as the veneer just gunked up the paper. Any dark spots that remained as a result of the veneer had to be removed as much as possible as well you can see below what happened when I didn't remove the veneer well enough and applied a stain to it. The area outlined in red is botchy and sloppy.

I took the sheet sander once again to the boards stripping off the stain and digging into the wood. Unfortunately some areas I just couldn't get the stain out as it soaked to deep into the wood. Before screwing the table backed together I added some gorilla glue into the screw holes and wood glue to where the shelves connect to the sides to stop the wobbling. Below is the finished project. That's three coats of Minwax Dark Walnut.