I managed to get a big WD40 stain on a nice piece of unvarnished wood. Is there any way to remove it or minimise it ? ie something to try to draw it back out of the wood?
Removing stain on unvarnished wood
Apr 10, 2022
Last reply: 4 years ago
6 Replies
Oil the rest of it to match?
(with proper wood oil, not more WD40!)
+1, nothing else will work IME
+2
Wait?
A lot of the WD-40 is Stoddard solvent, and that will evaporate, perhaps leaving so little oil behind as to make it better than trying to fix it.
Thomas Prufer
That's certainly another possibility. Warmth will help it evaporate. But if it is a big stain I would not be optimistic. I think the proportion of non-volatiles is ~ 1%.
I managed to stain cardboard with WD-40. Rather than ruin the print with solvents, I left it -- also as a reminder to be more careful.
The oily non-volatiles were no longer visible later, must have been months to years though.
You *could* wash the wood with lacquer thinner or acetone...
Thomas Prufer
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