Little desk

Re: Little desk

Barry Irby

How about covering the area with something like corn starch to absorb the oil out of the wood as much as possible? Maybe wet the area with area with a solvent that will have no effect on the existing finish (alcohol or mineral spirits?) and then cornstarch again? Dry thoroughly and coat with de-waxed shellac.

Two step process

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

The oil has to be dissolved in something and then the something needs to be removed. Mineral spirits is about as good as it gets for dissolving. Good solvent and sufficient high boiling that it will stay to do the job. If you can invent a "dam" around the spot the puddle of mineral spirits will be contained.

Then what I am less sure about. Paper towels, the dry stuff you put on oil to soak it up? With patience you should be able to extract all of it from the wood with repeated application.

Re: Little desk

Lee Schierer in McKean, PA

Try washing the affected area with Dawn Dish soap, then treat the residue by washing with solvents.

Lee

valid for any spot removal

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

It is common for people to simply add some solvent to remove a stain and not consider that the material has to be extracted, diluted etc, but then the solvent with stain needs to be removed by some means.

To get ball point pen ink from a shirt pocket we would back up the stain with paper towel, then add solvent from outside the stain area to wick it to the center of the stain and then onto the towel. Without a place to go the stain, or in this case oil, will just get moved around and diluted.

Re: Two step process

John in NM

Diatomaceous earth and whiting are two powders often used to pull old machine oil out of military surplus gunstocks.

Soak in mineral spirits as Bill suggests, then pack with the powdery material to wick solvent out. Moderate heat helps too.

With something like bar oil it may take several iterations to get acceptable results. Toss the powder out once you can feel, see or smell the oil that's wicked in. The more it's soaked up the slower it will wick more.

cheap kitty litter

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

The cheap stuff that is just ground up montmorillonite clay works well. It is the same stuff poured on oil spills.

Re: cheap kitty litter

John in NM

Yes, if it's fine enough. The main think in this case is being very finely ground so that you get maximum contact with the surface.

Clay litter could perhaps do without the fine grind, because like the DE or a zeolite, it's kind of absorbent.

Any other fine powder will work really, flour, cornstarch, etc. Lots of surface area is the thing if it's not a powder with absorbent properties. Some of them are a bit of a pain to clean up though

not thinking along the lines I was

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Flood, as in make a puddle of mineral spirits. This puddle will extract the oil from the wood and reach some equilibrium concentration of oil between wood and MS. The mop up the mineral spirits with something, maybe as simple as paper towels, or absorbent. Repeat till good enough.

Putting just solid absorbent on the wood will suck up the surface oil but there is no driving force to get it out from within.

Can't swear as to why, but it works...

John in NM

I've always assumed it's capillary action of the fluid between the grains of powder. If the solvent has soaked into the wood as well, the stain seems to rise to the surface as the stuff on the surface itself is pulled away.

As I said originally, heat helps.

Re: Little desk

Clint Searl

Thanks, for the suggestions. I'll play with trying to soak it out.

Auto store oil dry

kneale brownson

Many years ago, I swept parking lots. On oil stains, we put down the oil dry stuff from the FLAPS (Friendly Local Auto Parts Store) and then ground it in by pressing and wiggling with shoes. Sweeping after left no stain.

Here is the challenge

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Getting the oil on the surface removed is easy by any number of means. The stuff you referred to is ground up clay and it sucks up oil readily from the surface parking lots, garage floors and race tracks.

The challenge is to remove the oil soaked into the wood. By some means this oil needs to be moved from inside the wood to outside where it can be removed. I am skeptical this clay will extract the oil from within.

If the oil within is not removed I think that over time it will migrate to the surface and lift the paint.

Re: Little desk

Chuck

Here's a weird question from someone that has never done this but, I am curious if you put blotter paper over the oil stain and placed it in a vacuum bag, would this do anything to draw the oil out of the wood?

The science behind it

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

It is a fundamental property of nature that stuff will move from where it is to where it is not unless there is some barrier to moving. It is typical that this movement will occur faster at higher temperature. So the trick here is to get the surface concentration of oil at zero and create conditions where the oil will mover from in where there is oil to out where it has been removed and its concentration has gone to zero. Absorbing the oil into something at the surface is the equivalent to making the surface concentration zero, or near zero, which is near good enough.

I think penetrating solvent into the wood will help the oil move faster. In the end, try something and see if it works.

The plan

Clint Searl

1. Cover the spot with several layers of paper towels.

2. Saturate with volatile solvents.

3. Cover the area with black poly sheet.

4. Let it cook in the sun.

5. Repeat daily until it seems "dry."

6. Test adhesion of both oil and water based pigmented paints.

Maybe test barrier efficacy of shellac.

good plan