Cleaning wax from burl?

[Fibonacci]

I have a couple of burl blanks with fairly large voids that I would like to try casting with resin. The idea would be that the resin fills the voids, making it more stable and giving a neat mixing effect.

Unfortunately, the blanks are coated with wax. I can scrape it off the flat sides, but I am not sure how to get it out of the burl. I thought about hitting it with the heat gun, but I am worried that the wax would get absorbed into the wood and the resin wouldn't stick.

Suggestions?

I am planning on using the alumilite resin.

 

[ericw95]

Boil it in water and let it dry

 

[bitshird]

Let it dry thoroughly after boiling, perhaps even nuke the blanks. Alumilite doesn't play well with moisture at all.

 

[robutacion]

Yeah, boiling water will be your best friend and the steps are as follow;

Get a pot (something) big enough to get all the blanks in and plenty of room for water evaporation. Wait till the water is boiling, (do not put the blanks in until then), make sure they keep submersed in water while the wax is melting away and out.

As soon as you start seeing the way surfacing, keep scooping it out or use a paper towel to remove the wax from the water, the best way is folding the paper towel in 4 folds and then run it on the sides of the pot where must of the wax will go.

This is important as you will have no other way to know when the wax has all melted out from the wood and also stopping the floating wax to keep getting stuck to the wood again...!

When the blanks comes out of the boiling water, they "can" become very flexible, "rubbery" and will tend to bend/twist (depending on the wood types) so to void any movement, lay the boiled blanks flat tight them together with, wire, tape (both ends only), plastic zip ties, etc., and put some weight on top. This will prevent any movement of the blanks.

I don't recommend putting the blanks in the microwave to dry after being boiled, they will crack, curl, twist, and will "cook" from the inside out as the wood is saturated with water. Let them dry in a well ventilated place, if the blanks were dry (not green) when they were boiled, will only take a couple of days to air dry (depending of what sort of weather/temperatures you have...!)

Another preventive step you can take to make sure there will be good adhesion between the voids wood areas and the Alumilite or PR resins, soak the void area with thing CA, that will take care of the surfaces preparation for a successful result...!

I hope this helps, and I would be grateful if you could show a few pics between before and after, please...!

Thank you and good luck...!:wink:

Cheers
George

 

[studioso]

Doesnt alcohol dissolve wax?

 

[PaulDoug]

George, thanks for the procedures. I've been wondering how to remove wax also. The only thing I would add (and I don't know if this is correct) figure a way to hold the blanks in the bottom of the hot water and CAREFULLY pour the HOT water out first before removing the blanks. Seems to me this would keep from collecting remaining wax on the wood as you lift them out of the water. Than again maybe not.

 

[Fred]

Boiling equals almost instant wax removal, so I doubt that the blanks would get very wet unless you leave them under water for too long. I use a pair of tongs and quickly dip the blanks under the water and remove immediately. To get the wax off the water just drag a rag across the puddles of wax and it usually will absorb all the wax. Repeat the dipping step above if any wax gets back on the blank. Be quick as the trick is to not let the blank get really wet and hot.

They blanks do need to dry completely before you even think about casting them. I have had success using a drying desiccant material that is used to make dried flowers. It is available at many of the better hobby stores like Michael's or Hobby Lobby.

Wrap the blanks in separate paper towels (around here Burger King and/or McDonalds has a huge supply) to avoid the desiccant getting to the wood as it might not be easy to get it off. Put the blanks into a large mouth jar, replace the lid, set them on a shelf and leave them alone for a couple of days. Then get to turning like crazy. :biggrin: