Thread: Drying time for Ubeaut traditional wax

Thanks for your comments, TL, that makes life interesting

Originally Posted by JillB

Thanks for your comments, TL, that makes life interesting

E#asier than all those buffuing wheels though. Also have a friend who uses Danish oil and trad wax on his furniture. No probs.

I have been going through the process suggested by LGS of three coats of Wattyl Scandanavian Teak Oil rubbed in with steel wool, and then applying the EEE Ultra shine as a cutting compound before wiping off and then applying two coats of Traditional Wax. I believe you do get a better look with the grain with this finish, rather than using Danish Oil.

On a recent job, a mirror frame, I used a rag to wipe on and rub off the EEE and the Trad Wax, and was disappointed with the residual waxy feel, hence the beginning of this thread.

Today, on my current project of a long picture frame, I actually used the buffing method suggested by Phil above with the Ryobi bench grinder and calico buffing wheels, and buffed the wax off - an hour or so later there was no waxy feel. And my arthritic thumb joints were not painful from all that rubbing by hand That alone justified the expenditure on the polishing outfit

So, the waxy feel and the fingerprints on the mirror frame were probably because I had not buffed the finish strongly enough - the bench grinder and wheel will solve that problem in future!

The problem I do have is with the profile of the frame. It has two beads running around the perimeter, and I have found that the wax gets deep in the grooves, and hardens to an unsightly whitish residue, which to my mind has spoilt the finish - see the photos below

Can anyone please suggest how to get rid of this? I have tried scraping it out with a very sharp nail and rag, but that only makes it worse as the whitish compound spreads \


polish_2.jpg polish_1.jpg

I'd be worried about rubbing the oil in with steel wool. If you have already sanded I don't think you should need to steel wool. I thought it was for sanding the shellac finish after it had dried. Same friend I mentioned before just rubs danish oil on with rag or paint brush, and rubs off after a little drying time with a rag. He is a proffessional and gets real money for his work, so must know something.

The EEE needs to be completely removed before wax over it. You can remove it with the ol' swans down mop on a drill or something. . Do you have the polisher's hand book? Well worth getting. A good read as well as heaps of info you didn't know you needed to know. I would hazard a guess and say that the white in the profile you are worried about is actually EEE not the wax so much. Try a soft tooth brush perhaps to get it out? I stole my kid's.

Jill,
I think Anne-Maria is right, It's most likely residual EEE cream. It's a bugger to get off beading!. Try a cloth with the nail inside it, with the cloth dampened with some Turps. You may have to rewax, but have a look after you finish with the Turps and see. The rag need only be damp, but see how damp you need it to move the precipitate, by starting with a slightly damp cloth and moving up in wetness from there until you get some action..

Regards,

Rob

Hi again Jill

The white residue is not uncommon but usually really easy to remove with the cotton polishing mop. It could be from the EEE (like Rob and Tea Lady suggest) but Traditional Wax and any other Cabinet Makers Wax can also cause it.

Jill, I'm just wondering whether you're actually using the medium-coarse stitched calico cutting and buffing wheel rather than the softer, finer and more flexible unstitched cotton polishing mop. On the Josco brand that Bunnings stock, can you separate the individual leaves all the way down to the plastic axle? If yes, you've got the correct one and you should be able to easily get all the white residue from the EEE or the Trad Wax just by angling the piece slightly and using the "edge" of the wheel.

If you can't separate the individual leaves, you've got the stitched coarser mop. While it will still buff wax, it is very inflexible and doesn't buff up a gleaming finish even close to the softer one. In truth, that wheel is designed for use with wet pumice and some metal cutting compounds. It certainly won't get far into the beading.

As LGS mentioned, a swansdown mop is even softer and more flexible than a Josco unstitched cotton mop. If you get a chance, could you check the last 2 pics I posted to see which one Bunnings sold you?

Cheers
Phil

Hi Rob and Anne-Maria, I have taken your advice and hit the white residue at the bottom of the beading with a sharp nail wrapped around a turps rag, and used a toothbrush to scrub out the stuff that was moved. Will see how it looks tomorrow morning, but I expect to put on another coat of Trad Wax.

Phil, the 2 wheels I am using are both soft, unstitched polishing wheels, where I can separate the layers easily. I had actually used the edges of the wheels to try and remove the white residue after the first coat of wax was applied. I didn't pay much attention to it when rubbing the EEE Ultrashine off with a 4" coarser wheel I had - but still unstitched. Suspect it was too late after the Trad Wax had been applied. Also the grooves in the beading are fairly deep and sharply angled at the bottom, so it is understandable that the wheels could not getn right down into them and clean them out

Tomorrow is another day, will be interesting to see how it starts out.

Many thanks for all your ideas and suggestions

right, more lessons learnt today!!

After scraping out the white residue as best as I could do with a sharp nail and a damp rag using turps, I let it dry overnight. As expected these parts of the frame were duller than the rest, so decided to do another coat of wax and buffing using antiphile's Ryobi setup.

The Lesson to be learnt is not to load the rag with wax, as it is the excess that gets stuck down in the valleys of the beadings. After just smearing some wax on a rag, I flattened it on a flat edge of the frame before going near the moulded parts. After wiping this waxy rag on the mouldings, I immediately scraped the bottom of the grooves with a nail and clean rag, and then wiped the rest out with a toothbrush before doing the machine buffing - seemed to work OK, as by the pics below.



Pic_fin_01.JPG Pic_fin_03.jpg Pic_fin_04.jpg

For those interested, this is a panorama of three photos I took at the top of the mesa where the Australian Age of dinosaurs is located just south of Winton in Outback Qld. I did the photography, the merging of the three photos. I had it printed locally on to an A2 size print sheet, and a local framer cut the UV glass, the mat board, and the Foamcore backing.

Today, after buffing the frame, I fit the glass and photo to the frame, fixing in position with 6 x 6 mm pine beading I made and bradded to the frame, and then hung the frame - been busy morning

Very happy with the lot, esp how the pic, the mat board and the frame turned out well together.

Got there in the end. Looks good.

Purdy!