Storing finish

[poolhound]

I visited a local yard sale this am and came away with a nice haul. A bunch of different sized screws and some storage bins and also a lot of little used or unused finish products.

Mineral spirits, Denatured Alcohols, BLO, Tung Oil, various polys

I was wondering about shelf life of different finishes and the best way to store them out of their original containers. The MS and DA of course should be fine but the BLO and tung oil appear unopened but have been sitting on the shelf for a while. I cant seem to get them open and before I apply brute force was thinking what to store the contents in once I wreck the original container.

I have typically used glass jars but wondered if regular kitchen plastic products would be a good idea?

[shoottx]

If you use my method of storage, I can guarantee perfect results.

Open any container of finish, solvent, paint or dye and select a new receptacle. The receptacle of choices will glass, another can, heck most paint stores sell pint and quart tin cans, or plastic which can be reused food containers or other reusable plastic thingies.

To help in the selection process you should understand the outcome with each type of container in my method. Glass, no matter what you put in it will stay ok until you break the glass container. The glass container will tip over on a shelf and crack, fall off of the shelf and shatter on the floor, or slip out of your hands as you attempt to re open it and shatter. . All of these incidents leave a stain spreading the contents of the container to the floor, two walls, a door, the bench and two random power tools. And you will have broken glass embedded in the semisolid contents of the glass container which cuts your fingers to ribbons as you wipe up the mess.

Next are the cans. Cans provide the false sense of security that when either screwing the lid on or hammering the top down you will have an excellent air seal; not true. The screw on lids usually cross thread, and the hammered on lids warp or crush the cans sides. After being stored for a while, attempting to open either type can is an adventure. The screw on lids will require a 16" channel lock to break the seal, and make the lid and opening oval. For the hammered on lids you will need three wide blade screwdrivers and a gear puller to pop the lid. When you pop the lid the can will either be crushed flat or fall over on the side, dribbling the semi liquid contents across the bench, table saw and floor. (No glass embedded in this mess, unless the cans contents were from a previous storage attempt with a glass jar).

Last option is plastic. The advantage of plastic containers is the ease at acquiring a variety of sizes, shapes, colors and transparencies. Transparent containers are the best, they let you watch the product change color, solidify and then eat the side out of the plastic container. With the ability to watch this transfiguration, why would you deny yourself the ability to watch this phenomenal occurrence with dark plastic containers? The other advantage of plastic containers is when they melt, the will disperse themselves onto adjacent storage containers, react chemically with the adjacent containers and form a bond with the shelving material. This bonding reaction can be undone with a chainsaw, a bead blaster or dynamite, you choice in method, but it always means the shelf will either have lumps of colorful unidentified blobs or have to be replaced.

So with my method, you pick your poison, paint, stain, thinner, solvent, dye, or finish and store the contents how ever you would like, the results are always the same!

[poolhound]

ROFL thats hillarious

I think we can all relate this and have done one or all of the things you mention.

[BerniePA]

"So with my method, you pick your poison, paint, stain, thinner, solvent, dye, or finish and store the contents how ever you would like, the results are always the same!" - Mike

Hear, hear!!! Truer words were never spoken, well put and verrry funny!!!!

[Ed62]

It's quite possible that I could be wrong, so take this with a grain of salt. This is an old trick from my days using chemicals in the darkroom. I think the main problem occurs when air contacts the surface of the product. After using chemicals, they were stored for re-use in a plastic bottle (not sure plastic would be good for storing finish), and marbles were dropped into the bottles to bring the level of the chemical up so the air couldn't reach the chemicals easily. This really prolonged the life of the chemicals. You probably wouldn't want to use marbles, but you might find another substitute for them that you wouldn't mind throwing away after using. Note: I haven't tried this.

Ed

[just started]

You can buy a totally inert gas to fill the space and displace the air in less-than-full finish containers. Great stuff, paint won't even get a skin on the surface.

[wardprobst]

Jon,

http://woodworker.com/cgi-bin/fullpr...e=&showsingle=

I would suggest metal cans from the paint store. They are cheap, won't break when dropped and leave a mess (like glass). Use the product above to keep the remaining finish fresh. I've used plastic and glass but metal works best to contain most finishes.
HTH,
DP

[cabinetman]

http://woodworker.com/cgi-bin/fullpr...e=&showsingle=

This works good but only for oil based products.

I would suggest metal cans from the paint store. They are cheap, won't break when dropped and leave a mess (like glass). Use the product above to keep the remaining finish fresh. I've used plastic and glass but metal works best to contain most finishes.
HTH,
DP

A good paint store will have a variety of sizes of the metal cans and lids. For long term storage, put a very thin film of vaseline on the seating lip of the lid. After you fill, tap the lid evenly down all around the edges. Some solvents like acetone, lacquer thinner, ethylene dichloride may not survive in their original cans with a screw top. Long term storage in a glass container, like a masons jar works pretty good. Just don't drop it.
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