I have an ornate old piece of pot metal that was put on a buff using a lot of waxy compound. The wax of the compound filled holes and fine lines and is very difficult to remove. I tried alcohol, paint thinner, lacquer thinner, goof-off, ( with a toothbrush) etc. - but nothing really seems to get at the wax of the compound. Isn't there a solvent for wax? Thanks for any help.
Bob Durango
My next step would be acetone
Household amonia worked for me....
Tar remover, likely. Or perhaps soak in vegetable oil. Vegetable oil can be very effective in cleaning real sticky shop grease off yer hands.
iirc, wax is a variably long hydrocarbon chain, with an -OH group at the end, which technically makes it an alcohol. Other waxes are esters, also with long-chain hydrocarbon chains on either side. In the lab, you'd see that even bonafide alcohols, like hexanol, octanol, etc, quickly lose their miscibility in water, as the chemical properties of the hydrocarbon chain overwhelm those of the -OH group.
Which is all a prelude to saying that wax is proly more like a tar (very long chain pure hydrocarbon), in this application, and probably tar remover would do the job.
Could try a bit of heat too -wax melts at a low temperature.
How about soaking in a pot of hot water. The wax should melt and float to the surface where you can skim it off when cooled
Starting ether- automotive supply
Greetings Bob, I've had very good success using non-flammable brake cleaner to remove wax. Perchloroethylene is what is used now (I think) in brake cleaner. However, I buff metals now and then and have found that a warm ammonia solution and a toothbrush will always remove any buffing compound that I use. I imagine it will work for you as well. ERS
Try naphtha. Ditzler/PPG "Acryli-clean (DX330) (auto paint store) meant for removing waxes and silicones works great, but I think it's basically just naphtha. Follow that with a trip thru the ultrasonic if you have one or can get access to one.
Xylene dissolves wax. It's available at the hardware stores around here.
The other way to do it is put it in boiling water and then let it cool there. The wax floats to the surface and hardens.
Both processes used in our histology laboratory every day.
RWL
Prep-Solv, available at body shop supply houses takes wax right off.
-Carl
Cigarette lighter fluid is naphtha. Probably cheaper if you don't need a whole gallon.
It depends upon what kind of wax it was.
Naphta dissolves paraffin perfectly.
Terpentine dissolves carnauba wax.
Lard oil will dissolve stearine.
Heat helps in all cases. Warm the work and the solvent. Expect to soak and agitate the piece to get wax out of tiny pores. An ultrasonic cleaner would help a lot.
LLoyd
Charcoal lighter probably is too. I'm sure there is more to Acryli-clean than naphtha, but it smells like naphtha. It is available in quarts, and a quart lasts me a very long time.
Don Charcoal lighter is NOT naphtha,it is much too volatile!
My family calls it Uncle Claytons' alarm clock.....long story shortened,
We were all at the fish camp and my uncle Clayt got up at 5:30 and decided to fire up the pot belly. He put in some paper and kindling, and then in true Northern fashion threw in 1/2 cup of naptha. (We used naphtha in the lanterns.) Well it seems there were still a couple of hot coals in the bottom.... Blew the lid off the stove, blew down all the stove pipes and covered everything and everyone in a heavy layer of soot. Woke us up tho!
I believe BBQ lighter is a varsol like base.
Keith
Almost indistinguishable from Varsol or Staddard solvent. Some is not too far from what is sold in Europe and Africa as "Parafin", and in some markets it is just about the same as "smokeless lamp oil"
Good to know, thanks!
MEK, Methyl-Ethyl-Ketone, also removes chewing gum from rugs, and Citrus Degreaser.
D-Limonene dissolves waxes. It is a terpene like terpentine
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