Removing sticky from wood

[Amy Leigh Baker]

Hi everyone,

In buying wood from the borg I now need to remove the sticky residue left over from a barcode sticker. Any suggestions?

Amy

[Craig D Peltier]

First dont buy wood from the Borg its a rip.Unless its 2x4s etc and construction grade ply.

Anyhow maybe goof off? Or rubbing alcohol and/or razor blade.

Ive seen them on ther epolar before and laminates but never on there hemlock,cedar or oak boards.Here they staple a bar code to bottom. Hate to have that job.

[Rye Crane]

Hi Amy,

Xylene is what "goof off" is made of. It's not too pricey and cuts right through the sticky stuff. Use in well ventilated area, it will lift the top of your head off.

Rye

[Doug Shepard]

I usually take some acetone to it then use a sharp wide chisel as a scraper to remove it and that stickum discoloration.

[Amy Leigh Baker]

First dont buy wood from the Borg its a rip.Unless its 2x4s etc and construction grade ply.

Yes I know. But my options are limited, as is my time. And I'll also use the excuse that I'm a newbie :D


Anyhow maybe goof off?

I guess the second part of my question should have been is there any knowledge about possible adverse reactions from chemicals on wood? I have scrap to test, of course, but wondered if someone had a "tried and true" method.

[Chris Barnett]

acetone...but be careful....takes all the oil from skin
edit: Not carcinogenic
MSDS shows:
--------\Cancer Lists\------------------------------------------------------
---NTP Carcinogen---
Ingredient Known Anticipated IARC Category
------------------------------------ ----- ----------- -------------
Acetone (67-64-1) No No None

[Greg Cole]

I'd vote for acetone too, goof off can & does some funny things to certain materials. Wipe some on lexan or plexi galss for a nice milky look DAMKHIT.
Mineral spirits will most likely do it too....
Greg

[Jason Beam]

Any solvent i've used has never left any adverse side effects. Mineral spirits is my go-to solvent most of the time. If that don't work, i dig out the acetone. They both evaporate FAST and I wouldn't worry about hurting the wood. I routinely use mineral spirits on my projects to make sure i've sanded them properly. It evaporates in under a minute and i've never had any problems as a result of using it. :)

[Jason Beam]

I'd vote for acetone too, goof off can & does some funny things to certain materials. Wipe some on lexan or plexi galss for a nice milky look DAMKHIT.
Mineral spirits will most likely do it too....
Greg

Acetone will really goof up acrylic, too - if you have enough and leave it submerged it'll actually dissolve the acrylic completely! Some pen folks use it as a finish! :)

[David DeCristoforo]

Lacquer thinner. But this stuff is nasty! Like any solvent strong enough to remove the foul stuff these guys use to stick labels on with, it's toxic. Well ventilated work area and protective gloves are highly recommended.....

YM

[Brad Schmid]

I use turpentine, and it has never seemed to affect a finish after it has dried. I even use it when removing scrollsaw patterns that are stuck on with 3M spray adhesive, and that stuff is even more stickey than a barcode label. Let the turpentine "work" for a few minutes, and the glues completely release and you can just wipe it off.

[Bruce Page]

I just use a single edge razor blade to remove the paper and soak the glue with mineral spirits for a few minutes, then wipe it off. Acetone works also but wear gloves.

[Mike Cutler]

Yes I know. But my options are limited, as is my time. And I'll also use the excuse that I'm a newbie :D
.

Everyone runs to Home Depot in a pinch or a tight spot, so no worries.
If you haven't already bought the wood. HD prices the wood by the linear foot, regardless of the width, this is what makes it so expensive.
Convert the linear feet to board feet and pick the width that works out the cheapest. This of course is assuming that you have the ability to rip to width at home.
One more thing to watch out for is that the actual thickness of the material can vary. For some reason the oak and maple at the two HD's near me mic out to 11/16" instead of a finished 3/4" for a 4/4 board. Not much of a problem as long as you take the variance into account during your setups and measuring.
Yep, I've bought some wood at the 'borg in my time.;)

[john bateman]

Acetone is the solvent in your nail polish remover. It ain't that hazardous. And you probably have some already.

[Peter Quinn]

John, the acetone in my shop is way more concentrated than the acetone in nail polish remover...

Amy, I usually start with alcohol...usually two or three Jack Daniel's gets me over the rage of having to remove those Borg stickers to begin with (do those morons get paid by the number of stickers they use or something)?

Seriously, I start with denatured alcohol and a razor/scraper which removes most of those types of stickers, if their really stuck or old I move on to acetone/turpentine/xylene depending on which is in front in the finishing closet, they all seem to work about the same. I wear blue nytrile gloves when using these as they all eat latex quick, and I don't want to touch any of that stuff. I have actually sanded them off before in the drum sander, works but probably not good for the sandpaper.

Another option is if they are on something that will have one blind face, I leave them, though borg drones always seem to put them on the A face for some reason? Sometimes I can cut around them, though not usually.

Look for another source for lumber, seriouslly, if you enjoy this hobby its worth it to start searching for something better than the Borg can supply, and its usually cheaper too.

[Amy Leigh Baker]

Acetone is the solvent in your nail polish remover. It ain't that hazardous. And you probably have some already.

I knew I'd seen the word "acetone" before, but correction, 99% of all nail polish removers are "non-acetone", supposedly because the acetone is bad for you. I tried to find some a while back and had lots of difficulty.

[Amy Leigh Baker]

Thanks, everyone! This should do me. And yes, time to start looking for a lumber yard. The reasons are limitless!

[Chris Padilla]

Fingernail and some sandpaper? :)

[Lee Schierer]

You can heat the offending sticker with a hot iron and it will peel right off taking the majority of the sticky stuff with it. The residue will readily come off with lacquer thinner or acetone. Don't try to sand it off it only makes it worse.

[Kevin Lucas]

I've had good luck with Zippo lighter fluid. Its cheap and evaporates.

[Tim Thomas]

I use a product called "Goo Gone" to remove stickers from just about anything. It is mostly citrus oil, has a pleasing citrus scent, and I think it is pretty safe. Certainly a lot more pleasant to use than acetone, mineral spirits, etc. although I've used those too. "Goo Gone" is available just about anywhere (sometimes even among the cleaning products at grocery stores) and is really quite cheap. I've picked up small bottles for just $1 at the Dollar Tree. A little bit goes a long way too. I get the best results when I peel up what I can of the sticker, then cover with Goo Gone, wait for a few minutes and scrape with a plastic putty knife (or old credit card). Razor blades work too, but the Goo Gone generally works so well at dissolving the sticky residue that I just go with the plastic scrapers because they won't gouge anything.

One last thing, the original formula of Goo Gone is very runny, but they also make a gel type that is great for getting stickers off of things that are not flat. That came in very handy when I had to remove stickers from some Christmas ornaments that the LOML bought last year. :)

[Brian Dormer]

Actually, Nail Polish Remover contains Ether (yes, THAT Ether). There will usually be a mineral oil as well (to keep the ether from evaporating before it disolves the nail polish). It may also contain acetone, but ether is the main solvent. Because of the oil, nail polish remover is probably not a good solvent for woodworkers - YMMV.

The sticky on a store label is generally pretty lightweight, chemically speaking, so just about any organic solvent should work. Predicting how much the solvent will bleed thru into the final finish is the trick. Water might work, but may also raise the grain (not a problem for rough stock) Acetone is commonly used to strip surface oil on the oily woods (teak) and evaporates pretty quickly without leaving any residue - so that should be fairly safe and won't raise the grain.

When I'm trying to find a workable solvent for some unknown goo, I usually work my way up from the weaker solvents (Water, Alcohol, Acetone) and work up to the heavy duty stuff (Goof off, Goo Gone) until something works. If all else fails, 20-30 minutes cooking under a bit of Citri-Strip will pretty much take off anything - including really hard-core stuff like catalyzed lacquer.

[Rusty Elam]

The first thing I do is take a heat gun and warm the stickers up, almost all of the glue will come off with it then. If any is remaining I use goo-gone just takes a second

[Chris Barnett]

Peter....:D:D:D

[Richard M. Wolfe]

Whatever you end up using just make sure you get all the sticky off. A number of years ago I bought some white pine 1x12's at a lumberyard and instead of tying them together like is usually done the guy wrapped them together with duct tape and them went around it with a cord and tied it off to keep it from shifting. Never really thought about it; got them home, took the tape off and put them in the rack. I don't remember what I made with the pine and how much finish sanding I did, but when I hit it with stain guess how wide a couple of lighter streaks in the pine were? As wide as a piece of duct tape. The blue streak I was saying at the time was wider. :mad:

[Mike Heidrick]

Goo Gone is awesome as recommended above. Try it. I keep a bottle in the house and one in the shop.

[Kyle Costlow]

Don't try to sand it off it only makes it worse.
I tried that... much worse... and it ruined the paper

[Fred Woodward]

Mineral Spirits...the mother's milk of woodworking :D

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,

Don't try to sand it off it only makes it worse.
and

I tried that... much worse... and it ruined the paper

My experience was just the opposite. I got lazy one day and didn't feel like walking all of 10 steps to grab the WD40 can,:eek: so I just ran over the sticker with the ROS.
It worked like a champ. Didn't do a thing to the 80 grit paper either.

Maybe it was because it was pine, not hardwood?

[Jack Briggs]

Acetone is the solvent in your nail polish remover. It ain't that hazardous. And you probably have some already.

Acetone is quite hazardous. It removes fats and moisture from your skin in an instant, and goes directly to the bloodstream through the pores in your skin.

Ingerdient CAS No Percent Hazardous
------------------- ----------- -------- ----------
Acetone 67-64-1 99-100% Yes


It is highly irritating to the lungs and should be used with a respirator.


Naphtha or mineral spirits are both better at removing adhesive "goop" from wood surfaces. Naphtha evaporates faster of the two.