My wife left an electric hot water pot unattended on the kitchen counter, and the steam billowing up turned the upper cabinet’s door finish a milky white color, not all the way but like a sort of blush. I’m sure the cabinets are some sort of commercial finish. Is there anything to try to reverse the damage? I’m stumped.
Thanks in advance-Steve
Replies
Patience is a virtue. Give it a few weeks and see if the moisture doesn't fade away on its own.
Work Safe, Count to 10 when your done for the day !!
Bruce S.
Give the blush a good wipe with denatured alcohol. Not super wet, since older lacquer can be dissolved somewhat in alcohol.
Thanks Bruce and Steve - this happened 3 months ago. What will the alchohol do, perhaps dissolve a bit of the lacquer? I don't want to make it worse trying to make it better, if you know what I mean.
Steve
The Denatured alcohol will , in essense, pick up the water and then evaporate, along with the trapped water, removing the blush. If the lacquer isn't really old, it won't be dissolved by alcohol, and even then you would have to get the surface really wet and keep it wet. But in this case you are just doing damp wipes not really wetting down the surface or scrubbing with it.
Thanks for the advice - I will give it a shot this weekend!Steve
Steve,A bit of a warning about using alcohol - some producers of denatured alcohol denature it with solvents that will dissolve lacquer such toluene, xylol, etc. Don't use this kind of denatured alcohol as you will take the lacquer right off the wood. Don't ask me how I know this.I used to think all denatured alcohol was ethanol denatured by the addition of a little methanol. I'm a bit wiser now, having wiped the better part of the finish off the back of a guitar I thought I was just going to "clean a bit" with safe old alcohol (it had always worked before).Look up the Material Safety Data Sheet of any alcohol you buy to check on what's in there. You may want to try rubbing alcohol which is isopropyl.BTW, I have heard that mayonnaise can be used to pull the blush moisture out of lacquer. Sounds crazy, but they say it works.I've always used the direct approach - gently sand and refinish.Rich
Thanks for the advice - mayonnaise is a new one on me for sure. I'll try that first; it's got to be less destructive. I'll be sure to check out what's in the denatured as you advise.
Funny about the guitar, I am finishing a jumbo I built now, with Tru-oil. Easy to work with, and very repairable too. Up to 7 coats and it's looking great. My first one, and it is the hardest woodworking thing I've ever done. Starting 2 more next month - I am hooked for sure.
Thanks again -
Steve
There is a good point here, though with just a damp, not wet, wipe, I don't think even lacquer thinner would damage lacquer. I should add that if you need to make several wipes that they not be just back and forth, but have some elapsed time between them to prevent any possibility of damage to the lacquer.
The DNA manufacturers are using the "denaturing ingredient" to substitute for ethanol which is expensive because of the automotive use of ethanol. I think most of that substitution is more methanol. It wouldn't make much sense for them to add more petroleum deriviatives which have, I think, gone up even more than ethanol. But there is often a very high percentage of methanol in DNA. I've seen 40% methanol. Note, the Sunnyside Brand, sold in some hardware stores seems to have, last I looked, to have retained high ethanol content low methanol formula.
Yes, mayonaise is on the "things to try list", rather ineffective in my opinion, but as you say not too much risk of further damage.
Glycol ether solvent also works on the water, according to Bob Flexner. It's available at pro-level finishing material suppliers as Blush Eliminator in aerosol form. You do NOT want to breathe this stuff.
The last resort is to abrade it away. If the surface is gloss, you want a really fine abrasive. This is why you see recommendations to rub with tooth paste or cigarette ashes. For less gloss rub with the appropriate abrasive. For example rottenstone gives a very mellow gloss, and you might try pumice for satin finishes. This can snowball, leading to rubbing out the entire surfaces to get the sheen to match up right. OK on a coffee table, not so much for a kitchen.
Edited 8/26/2008 9:35 pm ET by SteveSchoene
Steve,The offending DNA I used that had ketones in it was from Home Depot. I forget the distributor's name on the can, but I was able to locate the MSDS with a Google search. You're right, I was using the rag wet, not damp, as I was not expecting anything untoward to happen. I knew the finish was lacquer and I had used alcohol to clean dirty lacquer countless times before. One wipe and I was down to wood.I've never used the mayonnaise trick, I've only read about it here. I think it was to remove a water ring left by the bottom of a glass. The poster said it worked. (shrug).Rich
Any chance your guitar wasn't lacquer but shellac?
Mayonnaise can work. Apply it and cover with Saran and let sit.
And Howard's Restor-a-Finish removes white spots.Gretchen
Gretchen,It was a Martin. It is possible that Martin used shellac in the 19th century and early part of the 20th, but the guitar was made in 1962 (as determined by its serial number), long, long after Martin had standardized on lacquer for all finishing. I'm pretty sure they used nitrocellulose then, but they switched to CAB Acrylic in the 80s. Both dissolve in 'standard' lacquer thinners.Rich
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