• January Turning Challenge: Thin-Stemmed Something! (click here for details)
  • Conversations are now Direct Messages (click here for details)
  • Congratulations to John Lucas for "Lost and Found" being selected as Turning of the Week for January 13, 2025 (click here for details)
  • Welcome new registering member. Your username must be your real First and Last name (for example: John Doe). "Screen names" and "handles" are not allowed and your registration will be deleted if you don't use your real name. Also, do not use all caps nor all lower case.

plastic/finish interaction?

Joined
May 20, 2004
Messages
156
Likes
0
Location
New Glarus, WI
Is there any potential problem of storing finished turnings (danish oil, walnut oil, Liberon oil, Waterlox, lacquor) in the typical bubble wrap bags over the winter? I don't want everything just sitting around but also don't want the finish damaged from the bubble wrap.:mad:
 
Is there any potential problem of storing finished turnings (danish oil, walnut oil, Liberon oil, Waterlox, lacquor) in the typical bubble wrap bags over the winter? I don't want everything just sitting around but also don't want the finish damaged from the bubble wrap.:mad:

cwearing.......

I can't say for bubble wrap, but I've shipped bowls in it.....no problems that I'm aware of. For the past ten or twelve years, I've been storing finished bowls in plain old plastic grocery bags. I've never noticed any problem there.

My bowls are almost exclusively finished in Danish Oil, with a Beall buff.....so, can't say what the effect will be on the other finishes you mention. I wouldn't suspect that you'll have any problems with any of your bowls finished in Danish Oil. If you've got any doubts, you might experiment with one, and see.

Finished bowls are stored in the heated house.......controlled environment. Couldn't say what would happen with wild temperature swings, but I'd be a little skeptical of putting them in unheated storage.....not, without finding out for sure, anyway.......

ooc
 
I would say yes, the out gassing of the finishes, even after months, could react with bubble wrap. I have had this happen and it leaves little circles on the piece that have to be rubbed out. Then again, it could be the bubble wrap having some type of release on it from the factory and nothing to do with the finish, but long term storage and have odd effects on the wrap/woodturning.
 
The usual advice is that the first layer of wrap should always be white, acid-free tissue paper, in contact with the finish. The second layer is often bubble wrap, with the bubbles facing outward. It may be that some oil finishes do not "interact" with plastic. All the same, I'll just continue to use white tissue paper.
 
What they said. Especially for lacquers and polyurethanes - essentially plastic themselves, and I'd expect a tendency to adopt each other.
 
Yes, I have heard stories of the plastic breaking down from contact with the finished surface. I too follow the practice of protecting the finish with a layer of white, either tissue paper or cheese cloth. I just store finished pieces in the house on a bookshelf.
 
What they said. Especially for lacquers and polyurethanes - essentially plastic themselves, and I'd expect a tendency to adopt each other.

The villain is normally the plastic, which uses an exotic regime of solvents, plasticizers and curatives, and may produce or release monomers long after it has taken useful form, not the simple finish. It's resin - all resins are "plastic" - in a simple solvent. You've probably noticed that plastics can smell for years, while finishes seldom exceed a week.
 
Several months ago, a friend and fellow turner was unpleasantly surprised :mad: when he discovered the printing on a piece of protective wrap transferred to his multi-coated lacquer finished turning after brief contact overnight.

White tissue paper has just been added to my shopping list.
 
A Danish or other oil finish dosen't seem to smell after a week or so. But placed in something that does not let air circulate, the smell come back.

Plastic will not let the oils finish curing in storage. They will still be smelly in the spring.
I just place my bowls on a shelf, on stickers, so air goes all around.
If any dust accumulates on them, I just buff it off in the spring prior to getting ready for the shows.

If you have to store where there is a lot of dust. Put into open paper grocery bag with a couple of 3/4" stickers under them.
I have had very good success this way, and they don't smell.
Ready to buff and sell.

Jerry
 
curing

Plastic will not let the oils finish curing in storage. They will still be smelly in the spring.


Jerry[/QUOTE]


When Do you think the Danish oil is cured?? 3 days, 10 days. 3 months???? If the odor is all gone and then placed in plastic containers do you mean the smell comes back? Or do you mean after a couple of days when it isn't really cured and placed in plastic that the smell comes back?? Gretch
 
Gretch
I believe it takes longer for oil finishes to fully cure than we all think.
I let my bowls (mostly finished with Danish oil) cure for at least a week before Beall buffing.
I put my pieces in large plastic tubs to take to shows.
Pieces that do not sell used to set in these plastic tubs for a couple of weeks till next show. When opening all you could smell was oil.

I now try to remove the newer bowls from the tubs between shows.

Now I must admit that I use the Danish oil like the instructions say.
I keep the oil wet on the bowls for at least an hour. (off the lathe).Small bowls I submerge in a 5 quart ice cream container, and do not take out for at least an hour. I get a lot of penetration (and protection this way). I wipe them down with paper towel, checking every once in a while, wiping as needed. Let dry on stickers till I need them. (flipping 2-4 times first 2 days)
If I need them for next weeks show, I let dry 4 days, I then put them in a not to warm dry oven. Wipe off any oil that seeps every 1/2 hour for 2-3 times. Summer sun also works for this. Remove and after at least another couple of days, I will then buff.

Works for me.
But if left in tubs will start smelling. Though I have never found any seeping of oil.

Jerry
 
Gretch
If it smells, it is not cured.
Many people oil their bowls while on the lathe. A thinner coat. (cures faster)
Though not as protecting because it does not get the penetration.

On woods that soak the oil very deep, I use a sealler while still on the lathe (2 parts Zinnser Shellac 5 parts DNA) after every 2 grits of sanding. Let dry before next sanding.
This seems to help not use as much oil. Usually loses its smell sooner.
Not as much penetration.
Does not change what the final color will be.

This works for me.

Jerry
 
Back
Top