I’m making some old fashion banks with the old brass post office box doors. The cases are walnut, I was working on the doors the other night and was using a little WD40 when I accidentally got over spray onto the walnut cases (that were sitting on the bench behind the doors). Pretty dumb mistake leaving them so close. Any recommendations on how to remove the “spots.” I probably will finish the cases with Watco and Poly.
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Replies
If the wood was raw , I would try a little lacquer thinner and light sand or scraped if needed .
An oil finish will be forgiving , heck a bit more wd40 and you may have something .
dusty
appreciate the help.
I believe WD-40 has silicone in it. If so, I would clean very thouroughly with lacquer thinner (ventilate well!), and plan on sealing with shellac.
As you apply finishes-stains or topcoats, watch carefully for "fish-eye"-small raised circles that resemble fish eyes. These may not appear right away-days later maybe.
You have probably figured out that I am speaking from very painful experiences!
Pete
Mike,
WD-40 is mainly Stoddard Solvent (mineral spirits) a lot of urban legends have it containing fish oil, wax, silicone, kerosene, but none of those are true. Check out http://www.wd40.com/faqs/. They won't tell you what is in it, but they will tell you what is not in it. I think you will be OK if you are using Watco Oil to pop the walnut grain before you put on a finish. I would spray some WD-40 on a scrap piece of walnut and put the Watco over it right away, let it dry and finish it before I started messing with a completed project.
I am glad I haven't reached the point where I can't learn anything new!
Thanks.
Pete
I apreciate all the feedback. I'll run some test pieces and let you know how it goes.
Mike,I doubt you'll have any problems. One of the main reasons I like WD-40 for sharpening is that we don't have any contamination problems with it. Water and everything else gave me problems, it's kinda hard to sharpen profiled wooden planes and keep the plane and your hands completely clean. I've had no problems using WD-40. It has lots of uses around our shop, makes a great solvent, and it's cheaper than any other honing oil. You made a good choice in using it on the metal parts of your banks.
You'll be fine. The shop I work in sprays WD-40 onto the planer bed all day long to help the wood through. I have yet to finish a door and have any contamination from the WD.
Just do a little sanding and you should have no problems.
Lee
Just wanted to drop a comment here, having found this thread in a frantic search on my phone following a similar mistake.
I was cleaning the cast iron surface of my spindle sander, just a few small spritzes of WD-40 used. Fan going beyond the table. The cross wind blew the overspray into my unfinished mahogany workpieces, staged and waiting for finishing.
I didn't notice the spots flecked all over for probably 30 minutes. Quickly used odorless mineral spirits to wipe them down. As that evaporated it was clearly not going to make things all better. Most all the spots still remained even after another attempt with lots of running.
After the mineral spirits all dried and I had searched online a bunch. I decided to hit it with some 220, hoping that it didn't soak in deep.
Both the solid and plywood veneered mahogany cleaned right up with that light sanding. Maybe the mineral spirits helped, maybe not. Just happy to no longer be muttering curses.
Hope this happy story gives hope to someone else, even another 10 years from now. Good luck!
I like lighter fluid for removing wd-40 from wood. it dries quickly and doesn't leave a residue.
An oil finish will be forgiving , heck a bit more wd40 and you may have something .
I like lighter fluid for removing wd-40 from wood. it dries quickly and doesn't leave a residue.
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