I was wondering when i glue up the bocote lams do i clean them down with actone or not. I heard if you use actone it will bring up the oils in the wood and you will not get a good glue bond. Any thoughts.

acetone is usually used to degrease a piece of wood, in order to get a reliable glueline.

It's always good to treat you wood with acetone before you glue it, but it isn't always neccesary.

Nick

I use denatured alcohol to degrease prior to glued up and have yet to have a problem.

mike, so do I usually. But I've heard even better stories of acetone.

Nick

I have used both but have recently settled on Denatured Alcohol.

pete

Thanks Guys. I will try the denatured alcohol.

Just thought Id put my 2 cents in. My father recently developed an intense allergy to epoxies to the point he had to actually change jobs. I did a little research into the matter and have found that there is strong evidence that most epoxy allergies develop when it is used with acetone. The thinking is that the acetone acts as a delivery vehicle allowing more epoxy to enter the body thru skin, mouth and lungs creating this uncontrolled immune response.
Once you develop the allergy, at this point there is nothing you can do about it and you have to stay away from uncured epoxy for the rest of your life!

Thats correct! I have a friend with epoxy allergy. He visit me at my shop last summer..when i mixed epoxy. He looked like a balloon after 15 min.

I wonder if ventilation is the problem? I use gloves when working with epoxy and laying up laminations, but have not used acetone as a degreaser. I have used sand paper to touch up wood and glass, then removed the dust with a a paint brush.

Acetone is found in fingernail polish remover, among other things and can be deluted with water.

I had a limb fail after I used acetone to clean the bocote. It was the cheap stuff from lowes.