Removing superglue from an oak table

My daughter likes to fix her own artificial nails an despite many reminders will do this at the dining room table - oak finished in Danish oil, but not reoiled recently.

The not unexpected has happened and a tube of superglue has burrowed underneath something else and been squashed and allowed to set.

Any suggestions on how to remove the glue (one part has even got some paper embedded in it) without having to refinish the entire table??

Her mother (SWMBO) has not seen it yet ………..

Lots of water MAY allow the blob to be removed.

A sharp wood chisel, used with the sloping side down, may lift the blob of glue off the table, or at least allow you to cut it down to a very thin coating of glue..

Superglue does produce a very strong bond, so take care that you do not tear away the surface of the wood.w

You may be able to remove some, if not all of it by scraping. The tool in mind is a scraper for wood. This is basically a piece of steel, 16 SWG or slightly thicker with a straight edge, that has been, basically burred.

The downside is that , afterwards, you may have to scrape the whole surface to keep a uniform look, before re-oiling.

You may be lucky and only need to re-oil the small area where you have scraped..

If you can recover the situation before SWMBO finds out, your daughter should be eternally grateful, AND have learned her lesson!

However you attack it, Best of Luck!

Howard

The water may do more harm than the glue!

Wiki might help.

**LINK**

Because the danish oil has dried it may give a barrier to the wood so a little scraping with a sharp blade may just lift it and leave no mark. it should not have stained the wood so a small amount of oil over the area after removing should be enough.

I apply wood sealers to some of my woodturning before filling cracks with a filler and flooding with CA. Note the filler is not wood filler but can be aluminium, copper or brass powder or even a contrasting wood dust this it to highlight the defect.

What I am saying is once wood has a finish it does not allow the glue to stain.

Have you tried a proprietary superglue debonder? Try it on a hidden area first to be safe, although it should be if it is safe on fingers.

Alan

How appropriate it would be if acetone (nail varnish remover) would get the super glue off!

I think I have seen acetone suggested for ungluing stuck fingers.

PS not sure what it would do to the Danish oil finish.

Edited By ega on 30/12/2019 15:41:51

Super Glue De - Bonder from Screwfix or ToolStation

Roy

... or make her buy the house a new table ?

(Good luck with that...)

Unfortunately father daughter cashflow is unidirectional - and not in my favour 😥

Nothing new there!

Just let mum find out, and come to her own deal with the culprit. But don't whatever you do let on that i suggested it.

Cheers, Tim