What Is A Tung Oil? Tung oil is a type of efficient and natural oil finish that has been around for a long time. This type of oil is water resistant and an efficient product for the woodworking business.
Moreover, it can protect from deterioration caused by many factors. It is also good for your wooden furniture since it does not contain harmful chemicals.
Once applied, the tung oil finish will bond to the wooden surface, giving a protective layer in the form of a hard coat. This protection can defend your wood against moisture and water.
Tung oil is a pretty good coating finish for wooden surfaces. However, the time it takes to dry and cure can be longer than other oil finishes.
Moreover, when you apply tung oil, you’ll learn that the coat is tacky and gummy. This begs another question, “how can I make tung oil dry faster?”. In this article, you’ll learn how to speed up the dry process.
Factors That Affect Tung Oil’s Dry Time
The secret to making tung oil dry faster is to put your wooden surface in place with a low humidity level. If you apply too much tung oil on your furniture or floors, the oil will get gummy.
To accelerate the drying process, you must dry each coat properly before applying another coat.
By doing the steps above, tung oil will get adequate time to cure properly. Read more to find out all you need to know to make tung oil dry faster and what factors impact the dry time.
After reading this article, you will know to make tung oil coating dry in no time!
Other Factors That May Impact The Drying Process Of Tung Oil
It is important to learn what causes tung oil to be difficult to dry. Typically, we understand that it is normal for tung oil to dry slowly.
However, if you notice that your surface takes an unusually long time to cure, these factors might be preventing the drying process:
Weather conditions
The condition of weather can affect the dry time of your surface after applying tung oil coating.
If the weather is dry and warm, tung oil will dry quicker than in humid and cold weather. So, you need to consider the weather before working with tung oil.
Too much application can delay tung oil’s dry time
It is important to understand that how you apply tung oil on your furniture or other surfaces affects the tung oil’s dry time.
For this reason, you need to be careful when applying the oil. Don’t use too much tung oil on the surface. Always wipe extra oil off your wooden surface to avoid gummy results.
Give It Time To Dry
Besides considering many factors that affect the drying process. You must also give your wood finish enough time to dry before applying another coating layer.
This is important because giving enough time for your wood to dry in between coats will determine if the final result is tacky or dry.
The Differences Between Tung Oil’s Curing And Drying
Curing and drying are two different things. Drying means that water has gotten dry off the wooden surface because of the process of evaporation.
Meanwhile, curing is a process where liquid on your wooden surface becomes a resin with a solid form. Drying does not take a long time.
Drying time is usually about a few hours and up to 24 hours. You can speed up the drying time by placing the tung oil in a warm place. Just make sure you cover the surface.
Unlike drying, curing takes considerably longer, and you can’t alter the process. However, other factors such as humidity level, ventilation system, and low heat can slow the curing process.
You need to leave your wooden surface for at least 24 hours for the tung oil finish to dry before another coat. To make the oil fully cure, wait for another three to four days.
You need to be patient if you want to achieve a quality finish. Allow your oil to dry before applying another coat, and wait for it to cure completely.
If the wooden surface hasn’t dried already after waiting for four to five days, you can try other methods explained below.
The method is either to restore the finish or remove it. One thing to consider is that tung oil is not a quick-drying coating type, and you must wait a long time.
Related: How Long Does It Take For Tung Oil To Dry and Cure?
Tips To Boost Tung Oil’s Dry Time
Tung oil is a type of great wood finish that can give protection from wood deterioration coming from moisture and water.
If you still see a sticky surface after waiting a few days, you have to use another method to make the surface dry faster.
You don’t need to wait for the oil to dry forever. Here are the tips you can do to make the drying process much faster, which are:
Restore Oil Finish By Applying A Wood Restorer Product.
You can use this method if the oil dries unevenly on your wooden surface. All you need to do is apply the wood restorer product over your surface’s uneven tung oil finish.
Use fine steel wool and rub the wood restorer on the surface where you see the uneven tung oil. The fine steel wool will make the wood restorer product blend with tung oil and helps remove the tackiness effect.
Use Mineral Spirits To Strip Off The Tung Oil
Use this method if the tung oil on your surface doesn’t get dry and gets tacky. Use moisturized mineral spirits on a clean cotton cloth and apply it to the surface.
Ensure you wipe evenly so the mineral spirit can produce thinner tung oil. After that, use another clean cloth to remove the extra oil from the wooden surface.
Strip Off The Tung oil Using A Paint Thinner Product
Paint thinner is useful to remove uneven surface that looks gummy. After using tung oil on the surface, paint thinners such as turpentine or xylene will make the tung oil gets weak.
Thus, it will stop bonding with the wooden surface.
Use fine steel wool to abrade the tung oil until the wood is free from coatings. Then apply a new tung oil coat.
Use Mineral Spirits Diluted With Tung Oil
Mix mineral spirits with tung oil with a ratio of 1:1. After that, pour the solution into a container and stir them using a mixing stick to mix them properly.
Take a rag and clean your wooden surface to remove grime and dust. Pour the diluted oil on the surface and use a clean cloth with circular motions to evenly distribute the oil on the wooden surface.
Apply the oil a small amount until you cover all the surfaces. Always wipe off extra oil. It will take a short time for the diluted oil to dry, and the time is not more than 20 minutes.
After waiting for the first coat to dry, now take a ball of fine steel wool and polish the wooden surface using the same circular motions to make the tung oil finish glow.
Leave the surface for an hour to dry. You can repeat this method if you want to increase the shine.
After that, clean the surface, add a second coat by applying the diluted oils using circular motions and wait for 20 minutes, so the liquid can bond with the surface. After that, wait for it to get dry overnight.
Related:
Apply Tung Oil On Wood Properly
