RedBarchetta Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 Hello folks. I haven't been able to find any information elsewhere to this question, so I thought I'd ask the experts. As indicated, one of my La Scala tops was discolored due to leakage from a Duracell battery. The size of the mark is roughly equal to a silver dollar and bleached much lighter than the birch veneer. Before I sand down and refinish the cabinet, I was hoping someone could offer a tip for penetrating the mark to restore some of the wood's character. Simply applying a bit of cherry wood stain doesn't seem to want to get "down in" to the mark. Ideally, a wood oil or similar product that could bring the natural wood's look would do the trick. Unfortunately, a wood-worker I'm not, so that's why I'm here looking for your suggestions. Hopefully this is the correct forum to post to, as I couldn't find one named "Help for boneheads who screwed up their La Scalas by burning them with battery acid." Thanks in advance for any suggestions you may have. Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrestonTom Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 Jim, Sorry to hear the bad news about the cabinet. Things happen .... Before you do anything. Please be very careful. The birch ply will not take much sanding - be very careful and do it very slowly. Are the cabinets otherwise unstained, was the birch raw? I am not optimistic that you can make this problem disappear. Some judicious staining might do it if you are lucky Good Luck, -Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolm Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 First you are going to have to chemically neutralize the electrolyte. The electrolyte in an alkaline battery is basic, not acidic. So you will have to use a weak acid like vinegar for do the job. Make sure you flush it well with water when you are done. Now you have a clean, bleached, area. How to repair the problem may depend on the kind of finish you have on the cabinet. At worst, it entails stripping at least the affected panel down to bare wood, bleaching so the entire panel looks the same, and refinishing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-MAN Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 That sounds like excellent advice to me. The whole top should be sanded down, stained and refinished at the same time to acheive a unified look. It gets worse when you have to do the other untarnished cabinet top as well because they no longer match... DM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrestonTom Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 Jim, I will respectfully temper (disagree with) my colleagues opinions. Careful on the sanding, the outside ply is not very thick. Even if you do sand as much as possible, just short of going through the ply, the stain may still not come out (and you run the risk of sanding through the top ply).Regarding the bleaching: my experience has been with hardwoods (esp oak). My bad luck has been that if you use bleach you run the risk of getting a purple discoloration. If you use oxalic acid (preferred method) then the course of events is that there is no bleaching then all of the sudden it becomes bleached far too much. The stuff is tricky to work with (at least for me). Good luck,-Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yaffstone Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 Maybe you are lucky and just the finish is damaged. If so, you could use a cabinet scraper to get the finish layer off the top, then re-finish. I scraped a pair of LaScalas in an evening and then refinished with Danish Oil. They turned out pretty good with not much work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 I think the vinegar thing is a good idea. Sanding is naturally strong medicine. I have used Scotchbrite and furnature oil to scrub walnut with no problems. OTOH, it may be that the wood has been weakened by the battery electrolyte and even Scotchbrite will damage it. Hard to tell from here. But I think the Scotchbrite thing is the way to go. It is either that or live with the stain. Perahps it is time to buy some mirrors cut to fit the tops? One cure may be to re-veneer the top with birch. It will not match the other speaker though. One thought is that if you want to experiment you could recreate the damage by applying a leaky battery to an inconspicuous spot, like the bottom hatch. Then learn by fixing that. Of course you may wind up with twice the problem. Smile. Gil Gil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BS Button Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 I think the vinegar thing is a good idea. Sanding is naturally strong medicine. I have used Scotchbrite and furnature oil to scrub walnut with no problems. OTOH, it may be that the wood has been weakened by the battery electrolyte and even Scotchbrite will damage it. Hard to tell from here. But I think the Scotchbrite thing is the way to go. It is either that or live with the stain. Perahps it is time to buy some mirrors cut to fit the tops? One cure may be to re-veneer the top with birch. It will not match the other speaker though. One thought is that if you want to experiment you could recreate the damage by applying a leaky battery to an inconspicuous spot, like the bottom hatch. Then learn by fixing that. Of course you may wind up with twice the problem. Smile. Gil Gil Yes, I had to refinish a sun bleached side on one of my Cornwalls, thanks to the former owner, he tried to use a wipe on poly in one spot. The scotchbrite was wonderful, but I was also glad that lacquer thinner had exposed the urethane spot. Anyway, after some very careful application of various techniques, it came out very well. Don't you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted December 13, 2005 Share Posted December 13, 2005 Of course it it a delicate problem. I do wonder if any of these stains are quite as deep as we think. It might only go down two or three cell layers Certainly we shouldn't go at it with 120 paper. But 400 wet or dry or Scotchbright don't mine down too far. Using that stuff it would take a lot of elbow grease to mine off a layer of even thin veneer. There is a problem that I found. If you scub out a spot, you remove the patina or oxidized wood. So you have to do the entire surface or there is a spot. Gil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedBarchetta Posted December 14, 2005 Author Share Posted December 14, 2005 Wow! Thanks to all of you for taking the time to reply. There are a lot of great ideas here, most of which I wouldn't have come up with on my own. Ultimately, the theme that keeps playing out is - take your time and be careful. Heard loud and clear. Cheers and Happy Holidays to all. Jim ---------------- 86 La Scalas 88 KG4 89 Tangents 10 92 SC-5 05 RW12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironwoods Posted December 14, 2005 Share Posted December 14, 2005 Judging by your user name choice, can we assume your a big RUSH Fan? [] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedBarchetta Posted December 15, 2005 Author Share Posted December 15, 2005 You're absolutley correct. I discovered Rush a "few" years ago at the realease of their 4th album. Now, after 30 years, I guess they must be doing something right. And judging by your avatar, I presume you are a big Aerosmith fan Just kidding. A lot of my friends went to see the Stones when they opened this year's world tour at the open air event at Moncton, NB. Couldn't make it myself, but apparently they put on one hellva show. Cheers, Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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