I've had the better-half at me for some time to make a Lazy Susan and have put it off because I couldn't get an idea of the right size for us.
Problem has been solved by Aldis stocking slate ones at £5.99 - very basi c but a good pro-tem solution at that price.
Can someone come up with a DIY material for sealing it? I've googled on the topic and only find commercial items that would cost more than the origina l purchase. I've got various waxes and oils associated with wood turning.
Rob
Oil is the traditional and proven finish for slate fireplaces and work surfaces. Olive oil will do the job, wiped off well. Or danish type oil, or a mixture.
Tim W
Olive oil can go rancid. I've had good luck with walnut oil.
Any vegetable oil can go rancid unless it's a "drying oil" (linseed or tung). A wax with a fairly high melting point would be my choice, and presumably those the OP already uses would fit the bill in that respect
Indeed, lithofin stone protector would do a nice job at several times the cost for a bottle ;-)
I would have though a mineral oil and beeswax finish would be one option. Failing that a drying oil of some kind (danish etc, or liberon finishing oil)
Except that the wax is solid at room temperature and mineral oil isn't. Paraffin wax is more compatible with beeswax but it's probably easier to buy a tin of any old furniture wax, which would contain much the same.
Many thanks for all your replies, guys. There is now a nice irony on this plus I am well truly hoisted by my own petard !!
Buy cheap and you get cheap - the slate cracked after 24 hours !! I did ge t my money back, but I am now well on the hook of my promise to make one, a nd I've lost my excuse of not knowing how big to make it!!
Is that so, or a myth? I have never smelt rancid oil, and I have some very old oils in the kitchen and used a lot of oil in finishes.
And what is rancid? I know what rancid butter is like, like cheesy milk but I have never seen oil go like that. Besides, almost any vegetable oil will 'dry' which is really to oxidise and solidify if it's spread thinly and exposed to air. It just takes a few days or weeks.
Tim w
Liquid paraffin maybe (the "BP" stuff you can, or at least could, get from a pharmacy for constipation). It's food-grade and is recommended for otherwise-unsealed wooden plates, bowls etc.
Goes straight through you and leaves the blockage behind! No good as a finish because it remains liquid forever. In order of viscosity it's mineral oil>liquid paraffin>vaseline>paraffin wax (soft, medium, and hard). The latter is the only candidate for a finish, hence it's the main ingedient of most furniture waxes.
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