Basic physics meets Dumb and Dumber!
Dinyar Chavda
>It's been cold in PA---not the way it is cold in some places, but cold enough for us. What has been particularly nasty is that the temperature dropped from a high of almost 60 last week to 30 this week, and last night, the low was 10, with a wind chill of -10.
I work in my garage, where I have very limited space, plus my wife has a hard time with the fumes from finishing products (doesn't bother me, probably due to the immunity built up in my youth in India, where buses and trucks laid down their own battleground smoke screen!). So, I do a lot of my finishing on the patio, let it air out a bit, and then bring the piece into the house to dry, having learnt the hard way that finishing and any cold do not go together (thanks, Russ, for that lesson!)
Anyway, I had finished some yew with Waterlox, and had left the Waterlox out on the patio. One of my club members, Tom Buchner, had shared with me his technique of preserving Waterlox and preventing the film that normally happens on the top if left exposed to air. He pours it into a spaghetti jar (although I think that any jar would work--grin), and then fills the jar to the top with water. THe Waterlox, being lighter, rises to the top, and there is no air left in the jar to cause the film. As you use the Waterlox, you keep adding more water.
It works great! The only problem is when you leave it out in the cold, as I found out this morning when I went to let Bear, the dog, out. There was a ring of Waterlox around the base of the jar! I frowned for a moment, picked up the jar, and shook it, and the water did not move! DUUH! IT had turned to ice, which, of course, expands, forcing the Waterlox out as it did. FOrtunately, I guess, the lid was not on perfectly tightly, otherwise I would have had broken glass all over the place.
Dinyar.
P.S. All the finishing materials are back in the garage!