Thread: Black Spot/Stripping/Biscuit

Originally Posted by johnomg

I'm looking to buy a Biscuit Cutter to help me make the table top, right now I only intend to use it once so I don't want to buy a Top of the Line expensive unit. I had a look in Bunnings and they have various ones in stock ranging from about $70 - $100 which I'm fine with spending.

Not knowing anything about Biscuit Cutters can anyone recommend a good Home Handyman one in that price range and of course any to steer clear of.

I bought a Rockwell Biscuit Joiner from Mitre 10 a couple of months ago for $99 and I'm pleased with it.

The weakest point is the engraving on the scales is not very precise so it is hard to set accurately, but that means just a little bit of extra care setting up - and if you are joining boards edge to edge it doesn't really matter anyway.

Hi Glennet,

Thanks for the suggestion and pointing out the weak point.

I will be joining the boards edge to edge so as you said it won't matter much. It's good to know the weak points before you get it home and have a play with it, so thanks for that.

I'll put it on my list of machines to have a look at.

Cheers
John

Black spot/stain.

According to some, Oxalic Acid will remove rust stains - it is also used to 'even out' the colour in wood & leather before staining. You used to be able to get it at leatherwork shops, but they have nearly all disappeared, so you might have to see if there is a pharmacy with a 'compounding chemist' in your local shopping centre. Test it on some scrap or out of sight area before doing the main area if possible.

Like most good things, oxalic acid is quite poisonous - it is the active ingredient in raw rhubarb you have to cook out - so use gloves, don't sniff it & store both the mixed liquid and acid powder securely & well marked.

I don't know if products like 'CLR' would shift it, at least without affecting the colour of the wood. (CLR = Calcium, Lime & Rust remover - its a brand name now days)

Hi bsrlee,

Thanks for the advice.

I'll try your CLR suggestion first as I have some of that (another brand name) up in the shed. If I need to try the Oxalic Acid I might pop into my local Cobbler first, he is "Old School" and has all sorts of things lying about.

Luckily I have some old skirting board material that I removed while doing renovations that should do as test material, it's stained the same as the window ledge and hopefully they are both the same type of wood. I'll even create another Black Spot on it

Cheers
John

Black Spot Update.

I put some CLR on a rag and tried rubbing it on the Black Spot, it didn't seem to do much good. I then poured some on the Black Spot and let it sit for 30 minutes. Might of been my imagination but I was sure it looked a tad lighter.

I put some more on and let it sit for another 30 minutes, this time I could see it had faded so I put more on and let it sit for an hour. I wiped it off, let it dry, sanded it lightly and it had changed from a Black Spot to a Light Mark. I then put some more CLR on for another hour, wiped it off and let it dry overnight.

This morning I gave it a light sand and am very happy with the result. There were originally three Black Spots from the Ball & Peen hammer. One of them looks like it has disappeared, another looks like a very very light smudge and the last one looks just a tad darker.

I'm sure once I stain the wood they will disappear under it or at the worst only be noticeable by me because I know where they are.

Thanks again for the tip bsrlee, I'm very happy with the result!

FYI: You mentioned about CLR affecting the colour of the wood, in my case it hasn't.

Cheers
John

Biscuit Cutter Update

Just to let you know Glennet, I went to four Mitre 10's within reasonable driving distance from me over the past week (hence me taking awhile to post back).

None of them had a Rockwell Biscuit Joiner, in fact they didn't stock any type of Biscuit Joiner at all. I asked the last store to look it up on their system and they could only find one Rockwell unit but it was priced around $200.

Thanks for the suggestion, however it looks like Mitre 10 in Adelaide is a no go for finding it.

Does anyone else have a suggestion for a Biscuit Joiner priced around $100?

Paint Stripper Update:

Because I didn't get a recommendation here I went with what the shop recommended, which was Maxi-Products Paint Stripper. It's suppose to be fast acting, goes through multiple layers and is industrial strength.

I was a bit surprised when I opened the tin and found it was a Gel you had to brush on, I've never used a paint stripper before and just assumed it would be a liquid.

- It was reasonably fast, I saw paint blistering within 10-30seconds
- It never went through the undercoat, so it failed on multiple layer removal
- Industrial strength, hmmm ... I would have expected it to work better if it was

I bought a 1 litre tin, they told me that would do three internal doors easily with some leftover. Well, I ended up using the whole tin and only got 1 and a half doors done.

They recommend you spread it on 2-3mm thick, I can tell you now, if you skimp on that (which I must of done by accident) you will have sections that won't blister, I had to coat numerous patchs/strips it didn't react with several times.

I still have small 1cent piece and smaller dots here and there, I just got tired of scraping today and moved onto the next panel.

All in all I wasn't happy with it, the tin cost me around $40 (I think) and now I have to go buy some more paint stripper, I'll try another product this time.

I'm still open to suggestions

Regards
John