Cleaning Up Cured Watco Danish Oil

[bonsaipeter]

My finish of choice for most of my turnings is Natural Watco Danish Oil which I buy in quart cans. For use I transfer some into a 4 oz. plastic (polyethylene) bottle with a screw on spout for applying it to whatever I'm finishing. I refill this bottle with fresh oil when it gets empty. After several refills the bottle gets covered with fully cured oil which needs to be removed for continued use of the bottle. I called the manufacturer and asked what is the best method for removing the cured oil. They recommended soaking in mineral spirits which I tried for about a month. This did not work and the mineral spirits showed no sign of dissolving the Danish Oil. Has anyone had any success in removing fully cured Danish Oil and how did you do it?

Thanks, Peter Toch

 

[Bill Boehme]

Watco Natural Danish oil finish consists of linseed oil, varnish, and Stoddard solvent. After it has polymerized it won't be easy to remove. For sure mineral wspirits won't work. You might need a paint stripper like methylene chloride (if it hasn't been banned), but if scraping doesn't do the trick, I think that buying new bottles would be the best option. When you figure the expense of a stripper, buying new bottles probably is less expensive.

 

[Curt Fuller]

I'd just get a new plastic bottle.

 

[Lamar Wright]

I use Watco Danish oil a lot and I as well use plastic bottles that comes from HF. When they get gummed up, like Curtis and Bill said I just toss them and get another.

 

[Ron Solfest]

I also like using Watco. I store in stoplossbags.com which I’d recommend you look into (no affiliation etc).