Mineral Oil and Glue up

[Chris McLeester]

I'm making an edge grain butcher block table top out of walnut. It has a lot of sapwood, and I was trying to see how it would look as I laid out the strips. I couldn't tell if the color would be okay, so I had a "bright" idea and thought I'd put mineral oil on it to see.

About 30 seconds later, I thought, I wonder if that will give me problems with the glue. I put the oil on the top (edge grain), but some spilled on to the glue faces (face grain).

I wiped it off and sanded it off. I can no longer feel oil on the boards. Do you think it will glue? If not, what could I do to salvage the wood? Plane them a bit thinner?

[Bill McDermott]

I'd put a drop of glue on the affected area, wipe is in a bit and see how well it stuck in the morning. Do the same thing on a clean piece so you have something to compare as "normal". Out of curiosity, I'd also try a bit on the top that was well saturated - just to see what happens.

[Bill Dufour]

I have heard that you should wipe redwood down with acetone before gluing. this removes whatever oils it has that protect it from rot/insects. Give that a try or maybe alcohol?
Bill

[Cary Falk]

In the future if you want see what it will look like wipe it with mineral spirits or lacquer thinner. I would wipe all the pieces down with mineral spirts/ lacquer thinner/ acetone no to try to remove the oil.

[Jerry Miner]

I second the idea of wiping with a solvent before glue-up. Acetone or lacquer thinner would be my choice.

Wouldn't hurt to rub some oil on a scrap piece and do a "test run" with the solvent wipe and glue. Test that glue joint to build your confidence for the project.

[Wayne Lomman]

Give it a go but wiping with solvent actually tends to drive oil into the timber rather than washing it out. Plane it out if that is an option or else if it really matters, start over. As one of the other guys said, wipe with a solvent to get a look at the colour if you need to. Cheers

[Art Mann]

I wouldn't trust it at all. Even if the oiled wood manages to adhere today, I think it could compromise the long term durability of the joint. The oil probably didn't sink in very far. Just plain or drum sand 1/32" to make sure.

[Chris McLeester]

Thanks for the advice, everyone! I can plane 1/32 off each side and only lose 1/16 of each 1" strip. I don't think that will be noticeable at all. Given that people seem to think it would be the most effective, I'll go with that. Thanks!