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Varnish in jars - the jar won.

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Varnish in jars - the jar won.

#1

Varnish in jars - the jar won.

Joe in a Cleveland suburb

Last winter I decanted a can of P&L 38 into several jars. The jars have been sitting upside down in a cabinet since.

I've been building a bookcase for my son since last winter - I'm very slow. The shelves are made out of Maple plywood. I wanted to see what the P&L would look like on the plywood. This bookcase is frame and panel, the panels are made of maple and finished with the P&L (I finished them before glue up).

I wanted to put some P&L on a piece of scrap plywood. I tried to open the jar. No luck. It was stuck. Tried everything. I was able to unscrew the lid but couldn't get the flat part off - you know the two piece lids of a mason jar. It seemed to be glued on. The rubber seal and the lid were stuck.

Finally took a screwdriver and started to pry it off. Was having an incredibly hard time. The jar was winning. Finally, in a sudden explosion, the lid popped off, the jar went flying out of my hand and landed on my cabinet saw. The varnish went flying all over as well. Not a drop on the piece of scrap ply though.

It was all over my cabinet saw. The fence. All over my pants and shoes. On the floor and even on one of my dogs that was standing next to me (always under foot this dog). It got on her head, her chest, and her feet.

What a mess. Can't understand why I torture myself with this woodworking stuff. :\

Re: Varnish in jars - the jar won.

#2

Next Time

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

Use your church key to gently break the seal free from the glass rim. ;)

Re: Varnish in jars - the jar won.

#3

Re: Next Time

Ralph Lipeles

And put a small piece of wax paper inder the cap to prevent it from sticking to the glass jar.

Re: Varnish in jars - the jar won.

#4

Re: Varnish in jars - the jar won.

Keith Newton

Did you just pick up the dog and mop on some finish with him/her? Thats what I would do. ;-)

Re: Varnish in jars - the jar won.

#5

Re: Varnish in jars - the jar won.

John K Jordan

Did you see my note about displacing the air in the container with nitrogen or argon? With that there is never a need to invert the jar and the finisher always wins.

JKJ

Re: Varnish in jars - the jar won.

#6

Clint Searl

Re: Varnish in jars - the jar won.

Clint Searl

Gasket the lid with a sandwich bag. Works for any kind of finish.

Re: Varnish in jars - the jar won.

#7

Re: Varnish in jars - the jar won.

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Always put a grocery bag ( unless you live in CA where they don't have these handy aids to shopping) over the jar containing any sort of finish that can make glue, and then screw on the top.

Re: Varnish in jars - the jar won.

#8

That is like what I do...

John in NM

I store Waterlox in jars until I need to decant it into smaller ones for use (fortunately my wife likes fancy all fruit jam that comes in small jars).

Rather than open the jar I punch a couple or three holes for pouring and an opposite hole for venting in the lid using a nail. Got tired of finish going everywhere as I pour you see, pouring from these small holes is very tidy.

Re: Varnish in jars - the jar won.

#9

Re: Varnish in jars - the jar won.

Don Stephan

On the suggestion of a member in the local woodturning group, I purchased and began using Stop Loss bags. By squeezing out all the air before screwing on the lid I have greatly reduced finish loss due to gelling. And it is very easy to pour out any quantity from the bag.

One observation if using Waterlox, one or more of the solvents quickly dissolve plastic cups used to hold ketchup in fast food restaurants, so I purchased a little metal container from a craft store.

Re: Varnish in jars - the jar won.

#10

Stop loss, too..

david weaver

I've been storing house made varnish in stop loss now based on the suggestions here.

I don't like to spend money on consumable stuff, but in this case, it's worked well.

My understanding is that the house-made pine/dammmar/linseed/turps type stuff will not last well in normal containers, and I use a little bit of it at a time (on guitars) - no issue so far just squeezing some out and wiping it on, and the squeezing and the wiping is convenient.

I'd buy them again.

Re: Varnish in jars - the jar won.

#11

Re: Varnish in jars - the jar won.

Joe in a Cleveland suburb

Yes, I remembering reading those threads. Thank you.

Re: Varnish in jars - the jar won.

#12

Thanks for the replies. 


Re: Varnish in jars - the jar won.

#13

Re: Stop loss, too..

TomD

I use Argon gas/Bloxygen to stop gelling.

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