Oil on the bench.

I have begun stripping back some laminated hardwood kitchen benches and have noticed cooking oil coming up out of the joins in the benches where the original coating had started to let go. The oil has probably accumulated over a period of a few years so not really sure is down there. Every time I sand over the areas affected, the oil rises to the surface in a matter of minutes.

Can this be treated with thinners, burned out, other chemical solvents, or do I have to wait till the oil stops rising before I can recoat the benchtops?

Many thanks in advance.

G'day jdhbris and welcome to the forums.

You are correct - it will need to come out. I would avoid solvents at this stage as it will probably thin it out and spread it further compounding your problem.

There are a number of ways you could try - perhaps the simplest and least expensive would be "kitty litter" - if the granules are too large crush them down to form more a powder and place a reasonable layer over the area where the oil is coming up. Change the litter frequently as it absorbs the oil - it could take a while - just be patient.

When you appear to have it all out - gentle heating with a hair dryer or heat gun should indicate if there is more to come out.

When it is all out - a wash down with metho, turps, thinners would be in order to get the last bits.

Let us know how you get on.

Regards,
Bob

Great advice Bob :)

Thank you very much Bob, I appreciate your advice and will try your method.

jdhbris - You are welcome.

Scott - thanks for your kind words.

Regards,
Bob

Salt is cheap, fine, and anhydrous (Absorbs moisture) - Blow it out of the joint with compressed air and re apply salt until it soaks up as much oil as possible.

Old guy I met once - who made gun stocks - had a old oxy acetylene cylinder that he had the top cut off at the ogive... and turned each end on a lathe to make a rebated lip, then made rubber O rings out of old car inner tubes so he could put oil soaked gun stock into the cylinder - attach the top and hook up a vacuum pump... and evacuate the cylinder..... to negative pressure of a few PSI.

The vacuum would draw out all the old gun oil that had soaked into the walnut... so he could get glue to hold etc when he worked on them to repair / restore / hand cut chequering etc.

No idea how you make a vacuum chamber for your bench top but the method would probably work.

Another possibility might be nearly the reverse of what I do for an oil-impregnated finish on carved kitchen tools.

The oil soaked into the surface wood of the counter top more-or-less at room temperature. Place a very clean shop rag over the oily place and pretend to iron it as if you were pressing a shirt (no steam.) Go slow.

Physics says that as you heat the wood, the air below the oil heats and expands. Add to that the viscosity drop in the warmed up oil. So, the expanding air lifts the oil out of the wood cells to the surface to be absorbed by the hot cloth.

I soak my wooden sticks (forks & spoons) in olive oil then into a 325F oven for 3 minutes, by the clock. This heats and expands the air in the surface wood cells. Out of the oven, the remaining wood air cools and contracts and sucks the oil down into the wood. Far beyond what I could do at room temperature. Plus, to get the oil out of a stick that I make, you would have to reheat the spoon to 325+ to get the remaining wood air to expand.