Screw lubricant

Try the experiment - screw some steel screws into an oak board in a line across the grain. Come back in a year and the soaped one might not have rusted, but it will have significantly more iron-stain spreading outwards.

As one of my major uses of screws is for steel screws holding oak together at a moisture-expansion joint (under tabletops etc.) I don't want this happening. So I use candlewax, or sometimes beeswax.

Bar soap works until you use ferrous metals.

Beeswax is a bit sticky, but I don't recall ever experiencing problems getting it off my hands: I'm sitting here looking at a new toilet flange ring that I just poked and prodded a bit. It is sticky, but it doesn't adhere to my hands.

Not all toilet wax rings are beeswax. Beeswax works well as a screw lube. If your ring is not sticky now, wait till simmer. ;~) I agree, they can be a sticky mess. Oddly the instructions on the ring box instruct to stick the ring to the bottom of the toilet and then set the toilet down on to the flange. I still set the wax ring on the flange to start with but the wax ring will easily stick to the bottom of the toilet during the summer.

Probably, it's better to pick up beeswax, wing and leg parts and all, from a local beekeeper. That is not as sticky, can be easily cleaned (melt and pour through cheesecloth) if you feel a need, and works beautifully without ever drawing water to itself. That said, plain old floor wax works just fine, too. When I built my deck, I lined up about

Yeah, regular floor wax or finishing wax work very well.

I saw him post a question on The Oak (dying a slow death, by the way--major defection of a lot of users after a system crash about six months ago) on how to fix the problem. So he's at least aware and at least trying to fix it. I can't imagine why he'd pick a dying board to ask. Moreover, I can't imagine why he wouldn't ask here.

And I wish he'd get it fixed.

I think it was Lew Hodgett who stated:

Northern MN.

I stated: > What part of the country?

Don Fearn wrote: > Northern MN.

Did the mosquitoes file flight plans in that part of MN?

Lew

It's winter. They've been ordered to stand down. ;-)

I agree with the technicality. Otherwise, the soap you buy from the store would be a puddle by the time it got on the shelf. I've got hotel soap from vacations 10 years back still bone dry, stored in the bathroom yet. Good demo of hygroscopic is a crystal of pure sodium hydroxide left open to atmosphere. Got to see to believe.

A good point was made that I'd never considered about soap reacting with the wood and leaching resins (as a solvent), later affecting the coating. What others might do this? The turp in a turp/wax mix, the petroleum distallates in hand cleaner, etc.? What about pH changes?

And how do I make sure there's no stray anything left on the wood when I'm done? All would seem to block a finish.

Soap may be somewhat hygroscopic, but better examples would be methanol and ethanol. They absorb water from the air readily. Perhaps the property you're thinking of is hydrophilic or hydrophobic. Soap molecules have a hydrophilic (water-preferring) end and a hydrophobic (oil/fat-preferring) end, which is why it works as it does by cleaning a variety of substances.

Hi, my name is Dave. I would use the wax ring. I am a union carpenter ( retired ). I have tried other stuff before but nothing works as well as the good ol' wax ring. You can even use the wax lubricant for saw blades. Dave

WOOD adsorbs moisture to equalize with the surroundings. Loses it, too. Think this may be a herring of a different color.

Non-polar solvents like turps don't like water at all, and if the soap is neutralized, which most all are, detergents taking care of the heavy grease, the pH can never get higher than the original wood.

KY Jelly?

You are very charitable. If you look at his profile he does this repeatedly in many groups. I'm convinced it is done deliberately and he is just a butt head troll...

If he is this retarded they wouldn't sell him power tools.

-jtpr

Tue, Feb 13, 2007, 9:19am (EST-1) snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net (Dave=A0B) doth sayeth: Hi, my name is Dave. =A0

Some advice. This is not a binary newsgroup - kill ALL the html when you post here.

JOAT When in doubt, go to sleep.

- Mully Small

Sun, Feb 11, 2007, 6:35pm snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net (Buddy=A0Matlosz) doth sayeth: ROTFLMAO. Thanks, that made my day - which gives you some idea of how my day's been going.

That bad eh?

JOAT When in doubt, go to sleep.

- Mully Small

Dave B wrote: | Hi, my name is Dave. I would use the wax ring. I am a union | carpenter ( retired ). I have tried other stuff before but | nothing works as well as the good ol' wax ring. You can even | use the wax lubricant for saw blades. Dave | | I Love You Forever, Honey. Dave

Yeah, yeah - we love you, too.

...but only for a very /short/ forever if you post HTML and graphics to text-only newsgroups :-)

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

Well, yeah. If he can't (for whatever reason) get his newsreader to act properly it's going to affect his every response in every group.

I don't disagree with that sentiment at all. However, isn't he old? Like 80 something? My 87 year old mother wants in the worst way to use the internet, but there are some things she just cannot grasp. And she mothered two Mensa kids. She's not retarded--just lost a lot of cognitive ability.

Wed, Feb 14, 2007, 9:31pm (EST+5) snipped-for-privacy@gmail-dot-.com (LRod) doth ssayeth: My 87 year old mother wants in the worst way to use the internet, but there are some things she just cannot grasp.

No prob. Get her a WebTV. My mother is 85-86 and has no problems. They're not really expensive, you can get a printer for them, they usa a TV as a monitor, and hook up to the phone line. I still can't figure out what I'd need a computer for, so I still stick with mine. It'd get her on the web with a minimum of fuss, let her send and get e-mail, and surf. I haven't checked the prices in a lonnnng time - got my Plus unit off of eBay for $50 years ago - at that time the Plus was going for about $200 in stores - it's been discontinued since.

My sister's WebTV blew up, or somethng, so shee's been looking for a replacement - I guess now there's something called a MNSTV, which is some sort of "improved" WebTV. She's trying for a refurbed unit, but can't shop for one, because she needs to get on-line to sop. I thought tat was a bit amsing - she didn't. LOL

If you've got any specific questions you can e-mail me. Put your name or something I'll be sure to recognize in the subject line if you do. My normal response to e-mail I don't kno who it's from is to discard without even looking at it.

JOAT When in doubt, go to sleep.

- Mully Small

My Dad started off dual booting (at age 76) into Linux / Win 98. He eventually decided he preferred Win 98 because that's what the people who were advising him knew about. He preferred Linux ... but not enough to swim upstream.

You are a better judge of your Mom than I am ... but don't be hasty to sell her short. Now, 4 years later, my Dad has taken a couple of classes and owns far fancier peripherals than I do! ;-)

Bill