removing paraffin wax ?

I'm not sure why you wish to remove the wax (other than by shaping the bowl, of course) but a stiff brush and some paint thinner or naphtha will probably get most of it. These solvents are flammable and not the best stuff to breathe, please be careful and work with good ventilation! Hope this is of some help

Kip Powers Rogers, AR

Parafin wax will not harm your turning tools or the bowl blank. Leave it on until you are ready to turn them and then just turn the bowl as you normally would if they did not have the parafin on them. I use parafin as a finish on some of the items that I turn as long as they are not going to be handled excessivly. Steven Raphael

I would just turn them, wax and all. Attempts to remove the wax with solvents or heat would make it more likely for the wax to penetrate into the wood.

Thanks All, but I need to remove the wax on at least one side as I want to use a glue block and face plate to save as much as I can.

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com wrote: > Thanks All, but I need to remove the wax on at least one side as I > want to use a glue block and face plate to save as much as I can.

Been there, done that, a card scraper followed by a plane is probably the best choice to get to clean wood with the least loss. Absent those tools, a saw would be my next choice. DW

Second the motion, though if it's a manageable blank, perhaps pin jaws/pin chuck/woodworm or even screws and faceplate into what will become the opening to allow you to use the turning tools for removal or chucking might be better.

The wax is (1) probably on the end grain, and (2) not smooth enough for gluing. You could cut a thin slide using a bandsaw, just enough to get a straight edge, but gluing will be a problem.

Is the wax on all sides? If so, I'd use a scraper on the straight grain and use that side for the glue chuck.

Start with a hand plane, then when the wax is gone, do a couple small chamfers on the corners (to remove wax that will get on the plane) clean the hand plane with solvent and do one more feather thin cut to remove the last bits of wax. (the wax will stick to the plane and keep depositing it enough to interfere with the glue.) This is how I make glue surfaces for most of my irregular chunks. You have to keep checking the fit between the blank and the glue block and sometimes rotate the glue block until you can't see light through the crack and it doesn't rock.

A jo> Thanks All, but I need to remove the wax on at least one side as I want