Expert: Greg Scholl - 9/16/2009

Question
QUESTION: "Just finished building a Glider Rocker out of Cedar and put mineral oil on the finish. It looks wonderful and no creaking when you rock! That is until the next day. Now it seems to creak all over---?????"


ANSWER: Hi Lynn, I'm sure that has to do with the construction...was this a kit, something you built from scratch? And why did you choose Mineral oil....it is NOT a good choice for a finish, especially one that will see any weather..... and unfortunately has contaminated the surface now......Post back please

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Greg,
This glider was made from scratch---no kit. Mineral Oil was used because it will sit inside an enclosed sunroom.We tried to copy from a bought one. The 1st one turned out ok and had an all weather coat on it. Would this 2nd one be because of the mineral oil in the joints? It never creaked for 48 hrs with alot of rocking????

Answer
Hi Lynn, it's possible that the mineral oil could make it creak as it works it's way into the joints and lubes them ever so slightly causing the to rub emitting a creak...Due to it's fairly high resin content, new Cedar should be allowed to remain unfinished for at least several months.The pitch in the wood won't really allow a finish to take hold until then. A nice job there on the piece, but you shouldn't use Mineral oil as a finish, it is a non drying oil and offers really no protection for wood, in fact it can attract dirt, and as I said, it contaminates the wood with an oil that will prevent other finishes from drying properly or even at all.The ONLY wooden item that you could use Mineral oil on might be a cutting board or other wooden kitchen utensil, but I don't even recommend it for that..there are other commercially available products for those...(like Boos Mystery Oil, Boos Block Cream, Preserve, etc) A better choice would be an oil finish product like Watco or Waterlox. These are oil finishes that containing "long" (hard curing) oils, resins and phenolics that will penetrate and dry hard from within the wood. I prefer the WaterLox which is a modified Tung oil product, and available in the "Original" formula that will remain flat to Satin in gloss level.I'm afraid you won't be able to cure this now...except perhaps with time, or allowing it to be rained on a few times and weather.Have a look through the WaterLox site, you can get it at WoodCraft and other places online....regards- Greg

http://www.waterlox.com/desktopmodules/fathomecom/Catalog/ProductDetail.aspx?ct=


An Oil Finish is a fine choice- just no Mineral oil- an Oil finish will dry hard and protect the wood which is what one wants from a finish- regards- Greg