Finishing Question

[Richard Madden]

I'm working on a hollow sphere with piercing. After the hollowing and turning the outside of the sphere I sanded using a beeswax/mineral oil mixture that I often use. It cuts down the sanding dust and I like the soft, natural finish. Then came the piercing...and this was my first attempt. Using a Dremel and a 3/32 burr I made some slip-ups where the burr was raised too high from the pierced hole and skipped across the surface leaving a shallow groove. I decided to sand the sphere to hopefully remove those grooves. I'm done sanding the sphere, but the pedestal stand and captured ring have not been sanded (that would be a big pain because of the captured ring and beads in the stand. My question is, is there some way to remove the beeswax/mineral oil like a solvent? I now plan on spraying lacquer for a finish. This was done one piece so the pedestal stand and captured ring are part of the sphere. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[ALAN HOLLAR]

Mineral spirits, lacquer thinner or acetone, possibly citrus solvents as well will remove wax and most of the mineral oil. Apply a barrier coat of de-waxed shellac and then apply lacquer.

[John Keeton]

Richard, Alan's post is correct, but for future reference you might consider avoiding wet sanding with anything that contained wax and/or mineral oil. Neither are very friendly to most of the finishes we use as turners. Mineral oil never really cures and wax under a finish is not a good thing. Getting it out of the pores of the wood will be difficult.

I wet sand, but I do it either with mineral spirits or WOP thinned with MS. I don't typically use lacquer as a finish, but if I did I would avoid the WOP.

[Richard Madden]

Alan, thanks for the advice. After waiting several days for someone to reply I decided to wipe the piece with lacquer thinner and do some sanding (dry). I then sprayed with shellac and everything worked out OK.

John, the beeswax/mineral oil WAS intended to be the finish...nothing over that. If you haven't tried the mixture I highly recommend it as a finish, not as a base for finish. Hopefully this picture will show. New computer and learning curve are testing me. See what I mean? Sorry, don't know how to rotate.

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JKJ EDIT: rotated image

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[Peter Blair]

Too late to the party but I use mineral wax and beeswax only on items intended to be used in the kitchen. Most of my finishing is now rattle can lacquer and I wet sand with paint thinner. It doesn't dry very quickly but with a quick wipe with a paper towel the lacquer goes on just fine.

[ALAN HOLLAR]

The biggest issue I have with mineral oil is that it never truly dries, it just sinks in. If I were looking for an oil and wax blend I would probably use walnut oil instead. I do tend to avoid wax and oil or wax and finish blends, since I find that the mixtures don't add the qualities of the 2 products; it averages them out instead. Results are much more predictable when layered sequentially.