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Thread: Wax Polish Dried White and Cloudy

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2020
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    West Virginia
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    Wax Polish Dried White and Cloudy

    Hi All - This is my first time posting after a long time reading and learning. I'm totally at a loss w/ what happened to my box. I sanded to 220, then 2 coats of Waterlox Tung Oil then 2 coats of General Finishes Semi-Gloss. It was perfect at this point and I was excited to buff a final coat of wax to finish it off and present to my wife as a gift. However, after letting it sit for the recommended 20 minutes I went to rub it off and it was all cloudy and white and wouldn't come off at all. The wood is truly beautiful and I've worked hard so I'm determined to salvage this project. Can anyone help me? I'd love to know what caused this and how I can fix it. Thank you!
    Box Wax 2.jpgBox Wax 1.jpgBox Wax 3.jpg

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
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    SE Michigan
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    3,222
    I guess my first questions would be how long did you leave the Waterlox and the GF finish to dry and what kind of wax. Look, don’t panic. It might be the Waterlox and/or GF finish just didn’t have enough time to cure. It might be you waited too long to wipe off the wax.

    I would suggest more wiping moving to a clean side of the cloth often. If that doesn’t help, then you might want to try to remove the wax with some Naptha...I don’t know, but don’t think that will harm the top coats.

    I usually let GF finishes cure for about a month before any wax. That might be overkill, but if you can still smell it, it isn’t yet cured. The curing “vapor” may be causing the milky appearance in the wax.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2020
    Location
    West Virginia
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    Phil - Thank you so much for the helpful info! I had been working on the 4 top coats off and on for about 2 weeks. That said, the final coat of GF (water-based, FYI) had only dried for about 24 hours, maybe less. I do think I let the wax sit a little too long given that I was doing it outside in cold weather - perhaps it froze and never had a chance to properly adhere to the wood and topcoats? I ordered a wax removal from Liberon - the same company that made the Bison wax I used. I think that or Naphtha should remove it. I was also thinking about heating the wood slightly to get the wax to warm up so I can buff it out? I'm worried that might permanently damage the wood, though...

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
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    SE Michigan
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    I don’t think heat will hurt the wood at all, if you want to try that. I’d probably use a hair dryer vs heat gun. FYI, my 30 days to cure is based on GF oil finishes. Water based may be much less.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    WNY
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    Mineral spirits or Naptha should remove the wax. If it won't then it reacted with the WB topcoat and there's probably no cure for that except to strip or sand it off and start over. If you end up having to do that then I would stick with oil based or waterbased finishes and not one of each. If you really like the look of the tung oil first, then after it cures for a few days I'd suggest you spray it with a coat of dewaxed shellac before applying the WB topcoat.

    John

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