Alan Lightstone
12-23-2020, 11:28 AM
Well, searched long and hard and chose a finish for my large (74" x 32") hard maple workbench top.
447769
The finish I chose, based on that long search was made by mixing 1/3 boiled linseed oil, 1/3 beeswax, and 1/3 Watco Tung Oil in a double boiler, and then applying it to the workbench top, keeping the top wet for 15 minutes. This was from a post on Sawmill Creek a number of years ago.
24 hours later, I applied a second coat, in similar fashion.
Today, 48 hours later, I went to remove the excess wax from the top. What a nightmare. Using a blunt metal paint scraper, I scraped off loads of wax. It seemed no matter what I did, I couldn't get it all. I followed this by a variety methods.
1.) Tried buffing the wax with a polisher - did nothing.
2.) Tried 0000 steel wool - all this did was leave metal particles in the wax which I had to scrape off.
3.) Next tried 000 steel wool - same effect.
4.) A variety of colored abrasive pads - all they did was quickly get loaded up with wax, but the surface still felt awful.
5.) 400 grit sandpaper on my Festool ETS 150/3 - just loaded up quickly.
6.) Multiple passes with many sheets of Festool 320 grit Brilliant 2 sandpaper. This has been slowly removing the wax, but the surface still feels somewhat sticky tactily.
So, how do I fix this? I'm getting tempted to just rub mineral spirits on the top and remove the wax, but the point of having some wax on it was to make it easier to remove glue, but it just feels awful now. Especially on the vice faces.
447769
The finish I chose, based on that long search was made by mixing 1/3 boiled linseed oil, 1/3 beeswax, and 1/3 Watco Tung Oil in a double boiler, and then applying it to the workbench top, keeping the top wet for 15 minutes. This was from a post on Sawmill Creek a number of years ago.
24 hours later, I applied a second coat, in similar fashion.
Today, 48 hours later, I went to remove the excess wax from the top. What a nightmare. Using a blunt metal paint scraper, I scraped off loads of wax. It seemed no matter what I did, I couldn't get it all. I followed this by a variety methods.
1.) Tried buffing the wax with a polisher - did nothing.
2.) Tried 0000 steel wool - all this did was leave metal particles in the wax which I had to scrape off.
3.) Next tried 000 steel wool - same effect.
4.) A variety of colored abrasive pads - all they did was quickly get loaded up with wax, but the surface still felt awful.
5.) 400 grit sandpaper on my Festool ETS 150/3 - just loaded up quickly.
6.) Multiple passes with many sheets of Festool 320 grit Brilliant 2 sandpaper. This has been slowly removing the wax, but the surface still feels somewhat sticky tactily.
So, how do I fix this? I'm getting tempted to just rub mineral spirits on the top and remove the wax, but the point of having some wax on it was to make it easier to remove glue, but it just feels awful now. Especially on the vice faces.