Oil Removal....

[B. Dudley]

Old fashioned whiting mixed into a paste with acetone. Cover the wood with it and the acetone will pull the oil out and the whiting will turn a brownish gray as it absorbed the oil. Brush off the whiting and repeat. Putting it in the oven with the whiting mixture on it will better draw the oil out. Soaking the stock rich in acetone or MEK will work well for getting surface oil and dirt off, but the whiting and heat is best for pulling the deeper stuff out.

[BRDHNTR]

Brian, after you are satisfied that you've pulled all the oil out, is the wood somewhat brittle at that point? Do further treat the wood?

[B. Dudley]

Well, I know that the whiting cannot do any more on e it stops turning brown. The wood being brittle would really depend on what type of wood it is. I have not had too much of a problem with that on the few that I have worked on where oil was a problem. Getting rid of the dark staining is an issue though.

[Roundsworth]

I went to my local Walmart to buy some acetone. I grabbed two quart cans and headed for the checkout. The first can set off the 'check ID' alarm and I was told I could only purchase one quart. I don't get upset anymore. I just made the comment that I am 53 years old and cannot buy two quarts of acetone. Am I missing something? I like to think that I am enlightened about the world around me, but this has me baffled.

[B. Dudley]

Should have bought the gallon. If they had one.

[Roundsworth]

I looked all over. I was actually surprised they had acetone. Oh, I sent you a PM, Brian.

[wayne goerres]

Accitone is on yhe list of chemicals we can no longer purchase much of. Seems like they use it to make drugs so instead of doing something with the drug dealing scum they have decided to take it away from the rest of us. Sound familar.

[Roundsworth]

Indeed

[Larry Barnhart]

Originally Posted by Robin Lewis

I was talking to Dave Trevallion, a well know stocker, and he showed me pictures of a process where he put the head of a stock in a crock pot filled with a substance (can't remember what he said it was, some kind of "earth") that acted like Kitty Litter to suck the oil out.

Someone else had a thread on this forum talking about how this was done too. You might search for it. I know that as a result of that thread an FAQ was added to our faq web page that documented the recommended process described in that thread.

I suggest you look for the old forum thread, it had quite the discussion on the pro and con of several processes.

diatomaceous earth is what you are referring to,It has many uses , I use it when restoring antiques such as old pie safes or cupboards that were used to store oil cans and such , resulting in ugly round oil stains, I put diatomaceous earth in a jar and pour in some acetone to make a paste, the acetone pulls out the oil and the diatomaceous earth holds the oil , leave it on till it drys, wipe off and and repeat till no more oil will pull out of the wood.

[Pa SxS]

Used to use that stuff in my pool filter before I decided to fill in the pool and plant grass

You can buy it at any pool supply store.