need suggestions for sealing wooden cups

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The Penguin

The Penguin

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I'm making 15 wooden (poplar) cups for a church to use in a re-enactment of the last supper.

about 3.5" at the top, 2.5" at the bottom, 7" tall - all turned so the endgrain is at the bottom of the cup.

I need to ship these on Monday. My initial communications with the customer indicated they would not be used for holding beverages, only for reenactment. Yesterday, the he tells me he wants them sealed so that they can actually be used...so now I need them to be sealed and food safe.

so I'm in a time crunch to seal them all so I can ship them. He says "it's only grape juice, and it only needs to hold it for about 2 hours" :eek:

I've read that brewer's pitch could be used. other suggestions are beeswax, shellac, epoxy or alumilite

I'm open to suggestions

thanks!
 
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I use a mixture of beeswax and mineral oil. You can buy a pint bottle of mineral oil at the dollar store, mix a half cup of beeswax in with the mineral oil. The way to do this is to heat the oil on the stove on low heat and when the minerql oil gets warm, stir in the beeswax and let it melt. Then stir it around for a couple of minutes and then take off the stove and let it cool for for a few minutes, then pour in a couple of cotainers and let it completely cool down, it will turn to a paste, this is what I seal the inside of my bowls wit. It is food safe. I bought a cheap grader at the dollar store to grade tge wax with. I got the beeswax from a beekeeper.
 
I had read that using mineral oil by itself would leave an oily sheen in the liquid in the cup.

Do you think mixing it with beeswax and applying it warm while still liquid they would soak into the wood to seal it better than applying cooled as a paste?
 
I honestly don't know, if you need a faster way to seal them, you can buy a butcher block sealer at lowes, and it is food safe.
 
Keep filling them with a Malt of your choice. Drink em' real fast and soon you won't care? Sorry, I cannot help you with your question. Be well...........Jan
 
If you had a little more time, you could make up a plexiglass solution and paint the inside... the acetone flashes off quickly and leaves a nice plastic finish on the inside... I use this in a lot of my cups and wood goblets.... just dissolve plexiglass chips in acetone to the consistency you want... I use a consistency near a light syrup... problem is it can take 3 or 4 days for the chips to dissolve.

The fastest method will be the butcher block oil, but that will need about a week to fully cure.
 
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I think the problem with CA would be two-fold - 1 is getting my big hands down to the bottom of the cup for applying/smoothing/sanding the CA, the other is thin CA will probably seep through the end grain and look ugly on the bottom.

I'm going to try the mineral oil/beeswax tomorrow. I ran to Woodcraft today to pick up the wax and the old toymaker that was hanging out in the store - the same mixture was his suggestion.

I'm going to apply it while still hot, kind of the same method that brewer's pitch is used, rather than letting it cool and applying as a paste.

I've got an extra cup or 2 I can experiment on to see if it works...if it doesn't, there's always this solution:
 

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mineral oil/beeswax mix works great!

poured it in hot, let it cool, then cleaned off excess.

filled with water and set it on a paper towel and checked periodically for 2 hours. no evidence of leaking on the paper towel, or seepage into the end grain.

since it's food safe, I'm going to use it on the outsides of the cups as well. it does give a nice natural feel to the wood.

and I can include a little canister of the paste for them to reapply after use.
 
I use a mixture of 1 oz bee's wax to 1 cup mineral oil. I use it on all of my objects that will be used for eating, drinking or use in the kitchen. You can add more mineral oil if you want it to be a thinner paste. Your cups look good and the wax will protect them and give them a great luster over time.
 
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