# Best way to remove anchorseal



## Cody Killgore (Apr 19, 2016)

Hey guys,

After seeing all of Kevin and Scott's mallee burl, it reminded me to go see if mine was dry yet. I cut up a bunch about 2 years ago. It seemed pretty dry and I sold a piece on feebay. When I went to ship it, I noticed a lot of small cracks forming. I immediately anchorsealed all of the pieces and set them on a shelf in the shed for the last two years. It's a pretty thick coat.

I pulled one piece and scraped and sanded off all the wax and have been letting it sit for the last week or so. No new checks forming and the meter shows 12% so I think it's good to go now.

Anybody know a good way to get rid of all that wax without trimming the blanks? I didn't cut them oversize so I really don't want to trim them and the wax clogs up my sanding belts pretty fast.


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## Kevin (Apr 19, 2016)

There's no need to remove it for turning blanks. Turners don't expect blanks to be free of wax or sealer. The chisel takes care of that. Leave it on.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Kevin (Apr 19, 2016)

I didn't answer the question fully did I. I use the jointer with it set to zero. My jointer is properly calibrated so than when the infeed table is lifted all the way up, it still takes off about 1/64" or less.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Cody Killgore (Apr 19, 2016)

Believe it or not, I don't think I cut a single turning blank. They were pretty much all in the knife block size. Haha. Probably not going to sell any. Mostly just want it off so I can see figure.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Kevin (Apr 19, 2016)

You can try boiling it off but I never had much luck with that. Use a heat gun on the bottom side and wipe off as much as you can thenthe same to the other side. Contrary to popular belief wax will not penetrate the wood even when heated - wax molecules are too large. They can penetrate voids like found in jarrah and madrone burl etc. but not the wood pores themselves. 

You can get more off of what is left after melting by wiping with naptha but acetone doesn't work well for some reason. For small blocks like scales and grips etc parrafin wax is a better choice than anchorseal.

Reactions: Informative 2


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## Cody Killgore (Apr 19, 2016)

I've got one of those things people put their feet in that melts wax. That might be a good plan


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## Cody Killgore (Apr 19, 2016)

I meant for applying the paraffin, haha.

Gonna try to melt some off with heat gun


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## barry richardson (Apr 19, 2016)

I like to incorporate lots of voids and natural edges in most of the stuff I turn, so AS is a pain to get out of those areas, gotta carefully apply it to only the parts that will see a blade. As Kevin said, you cant beat a jointer for getting it off flat surfaces, lubes the bed too, but watch out for the sawdust from it that gets on the floor, or you will be dancing around like a hog on ice....

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 1 | Funny 4


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## JR Custom Calls (Apr 19, 2016)

I've used my table saw to clean them up. If they're cut good and straight, and your saw is set up right, you can just skim them so that it mostly cuts the wax and maybe a hair of wood. Only sucky part is that it tends to clog up the zero clearance insert, and gotta clean the blade afterwards.


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## ClintW (Apr 19, 2016)

I would think solvent may work. Most likely a nonpolar solvent like hexane. Maybe methylated spirits? Heck gasoline might work, if you don't mind the smell. Acetone and ethanol will not. They are polar and do not dissolve wax. 

Of course this is all assuming AS is like paraffin wax. Not sure on that.


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