Glue for oil-soaked repair

[Christopher Jacoby]

This is great, thank you all.

@Mark Norfleetwe have no way to determine what oil it is--The instrument is a century old

[Mark Norfleet]

23 minutes ago, Christopher Jacoby said:

This is great, thank you all.

@Mark Norfleetwe have no way to determine what oil it is--The instrument is a century old

I was hoping your nose would know.

 

[uguntde]

Whatever oil you are dealing with, it means long chained carbohydrates. There are few oils that will harden. There are two ways to get rid of oil:

1. Dissolve it in a low viscosity solvent. This could be anything that evaporates with a little heat. Acetone, hexane, dichloromethane, trichloroethane or dichloroethylene (the last two very effective, also sold as paint stripper, in the UK sold as some green stuff, not found on German shelves). This approach would be my first choice. With this stuff you rid of any oil.

2. Any type of soap removes oils. Just wash thoroughly with some water and soap. This is harder and you have wet wood afterwards, but you will remove all oil. This method kind of binds the oil to soap molecues. The disadvantage is of course that hide glue also does not stick to soap. But the soap bound oil is water suluble and can be washed away. In the end the wood will be wet, but this may be not your biggest problem.

I would try to find some trichloroethane or dichloroethylene.

 

[Deo Lawson]

Time to hop to the corner store for some duct tape and superglue

[La Folia]

I would say Oil-Dri is the conservative approach.  It's amazing for spills.  The oil is wicked into the clay, and is absorbed chemically by the clay structure.  Since the clay is composed of extremely tiny particles, it should draw oil out of even the tiniest pores.  I have no idea how it will do with wood, but I can't imagine any downside.

Sometimes data safety sheets are amusing and confusing, and very possibly written by lawyers.  Remember, it's sold for cleaning up spills, so it is certainly suitable for the purpose.  With large spills I can imagine it possibly creating a little heat, or maybe enough heat to be hazardous, but with the minute amount in a small piece of wood, I'm sure it's completely innocuous.

I guess there's only one way to be sure.  Try it and see if the fiddle falls apart.  Or maybe you can do a test gluing with a scrap piece of wood.

[l33tplaya]

On 11/15/2022 at 11:40 AM, uguntde said:

Whatever oil you are dealing with, it means long chained carbohydrates. There are few oils that will harden. There are two ways to get rid of oil:

1. Dissolve it in a low viscosity solvent. This could be anything that evaporates with a little heat. Acetone, hexane, dichloromethane, trichloroethane or dichloroethylene (the last two very effective, also sold as paint stripper, in the UK sold as some green stuff, not found on German shelves). This approach would be my first choice. With this stuff you rid of any oil.

2. Any type of soap removes oils. Just wash thoroughly with some water and soap. This is harder and you have wet wood afterwards, but you will remove all oil. This method kind of binds the oil to soap molecues. The disadvantage is of course that hide glue also does not stick to soap. But the soap bound oil is water suluble and can be washed away. In the end the wood will be wet, but this may be not your biggest problem.

I would try to find some trichloroethane or dichloroethylene.

 

These are considered carcinogenic (TCE, DCE). TCE used to be used to clean tape heads.  Now not allowed (at least in US).  Use these only in a properly functioning fume hood. 

Edited November 20, 2022 by l33tplaya
wording

[uguntde]

On 11/20/2022 at 5:13 AM, l33tplaya said:

These are considered carcinogenic (TCE, DCE). TCE used to be used to clean tape heads.  Now not allowed (at least in US).  Use these only in a properly functioning fume hood. 

I know, I know people who inhaled this stuff every day when cleaning metal. Until recently and I don't know whether this is still the case you could by a green varnish stripper in the UK which was nothing else.