Bondo vs Wax

GoldCrown

GoldCrown

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Our community club house is having the tables recovered. The Mechanic wants to use Bondo to seam the slates. My question is how does Bondo adhere to a slate that has been recovered about 3-4 times in the past 9 years. There is most likely a fair amount of wax on the seams. Is Bondo for a new (clean) installation only or can it be used on a surface that has a waxed presence. Thanks.
 
I`m not a mechanic,but I just cleaned the seams using 0000 steel wool dipped in naptha.The slate appears to be free of old wax,and "dry",for lack of a better term.
 
skydawg said:
I`m not a mechanic,but I just cleaned the seams using 0000 steel wool dipped in naptha.The slate appears to be free of old wax,and "dry",for lack of a better term.
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Thanks skydawg. I will talk to the Mechanic and see what he had in mind and discuss making sure the prep work is done correctly. Next question while we're on the subject....how is Bondo. What is wrong with tradition wax?
 
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GoldCrown said:
Thanks skydawg. I will talk to the Mechanic and see what he had in mind and discuss making sure the prep work is done correctly. Next question while we're on the subject....how is Bondo. What is wrong with tradition wax?
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Turpentine and a rag will take off all the wax leaving the slate dry of ANY wax build up;)
 
realkingcobra said:
Turpentine and a rag will take off all the wax leaving the slate dry of ANY wax build up;)
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Thanks. Appreciate your help. I try never to tell anyone how to do their job. But the person doing the work needs some fine tuning. I want to make sure he does the job right. He worked on these tables before. He tries hard. I don't think he really worked and learned from a highly skilled mechanic in his past.
 
GoldCrown said:
Thanks skydawg. I will talk to the Mechanic and see what he had in mind and discuss making sure the prep work is done correctly. Next question while we're on the subject....how is Bondo. What is wrong with tradition wax?
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Bondo is the way to go. Pretty fast to apply, and when the seams are set properly before and joined together, the Bondo makes the seam disappear. Wax has a problem with getting warm and making a small hump right over the top of the seam. After using Bondo I doubt your guy will want to go back to wax.
 
reverend said:
Bondo is the way to go. Pretty fast to apply, and when the seams are set properly before and joined together, the Bondo makes the seam disappear. Wax has a problem with getting warm and making a small hump right over the top of the seam. After using Bondo I doubt your guy will want to go back to wax.
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Thanks Rev. Thanks everyone. I'll follow up.
 
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I couldn't remove a blue wax from the seams on my table with turpentine.
I tried using some laquer thinner and that seemed to make the job easier.

It still took quite a pile of rags... and a lot of elbow grease to get it all off.
 
Ralph Kramden said:
I couldn't remove a blue wax from the seams on my table with turpentine.
I tried using some laquer thinner and that seemed to make the job easier.

It still took quite a pile of rags... and a lot of elbow grease to get it all off.
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I think that is because that blue "slate wax" isn't really wax. Its some sort of man made compound. The turpentine works well with natural bees wax.
 
Job done. The Bondo does look like the way to go. The slate did get cleaned with Turpentine on day one. 2 tables were completed. I almost got killed by 2 women playing cards in the room next to us. They complained big time about the turp odor. I'm expecting hate mail and death threats from them.
Next day the other 2 tables were started/finished. We used Naphtha. This time they bit'ed about the odor from the Bondo. No sense of humor on their end.
Anyway the Bondo application was easy. Light sanding did it's fine tuning.
 
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I just built my first ever table and went against popular opinion by using wax, and beeswax at that. The 100 year old table had obviously been put together using Bondo or hard putty on a number of occasions prior to me getting hold of it and there was a lot of residue on the slate where it had been over applied and sanded back. There were even gouges out of the slate where some idiot had attacked it with a metal scraper or putty knife. And judging by the remaining filler on the edges, they had tried to fill gaps of up to 1/16"...!!!

I found the wax easy to work with once I'd worked out a good technique and after properly butting the slates I applied an initial seal. Due to a number of chips along the seams, it took another pass or two to build up the seam to where it could be pared back to a flush surface. Initial results are promising but time will tell if the wax stays flat.

I think my problem with Bondo is that it sets pretty hard and sanding it back will always result in some sanding of the slate. After 100+ years of moves, you end up with the kind of abused slate I've had to deal with. Plus, I like to pay respects to the old girl by using traditional methods ;)
 
Here she is... I have the full build in a post entitled Brunswick Wellington...? Shame I didn't document the waxing portion of the build. I was too engrossed in getting it right.

PT20s.jpg


PT21s.jpg
 
The other thing I worked out is that a pair of new slates should butt up pretty much perfectly leaving very little room for any kind of filler at all. This being the case, I can now see the requirement for paper tabs and superglue when using the Bondo method. However, if the wax method is undertaken correctly, i.e. the slate is heated and the wax is thoroughly melted into the join, then the capillary action draws the wax in and bonds the seam across the whole width and down through the full depth of the slate. The wax bonds to the slate extremely well and I expect that it would take a great amount of force to break open the wax joint, hence, no requirement for bits of paper and superglue.
 
I never used wax or bondo.

I used fixall.

Wax is soft and will show up over time.
Bondo sounds good so I won't say anything bad about it.
Fixall is what I was taught to use in the 70's and has never let me down.

Either bondo or fixall will need to be redone if the table is ever lifted.
 
betyouaint said:
The other thing I worked out is that a pair of new slates should butt up pretty much perfectly leaving very little room for any kind of filler at all. This being the case, I can now see the requirement for paper tabs and superglue when using the Bondo method. However, if the wax method is undertaken correctly, i.e. the slate is heated and the wax is thoroughly melted into the join, then the capillary action draws the wax in and bonds the seam across the whole width and down through the full depth of the slate. The wax bonds to the slate extremely well and I expect that it would take a great amount of force to break open the wax joint, hence, no requirement for bits of paper and superglue.
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Well, time will tell;)
 
Inferno said:
I never used wax or bondo.

I used fixall.

Wax is soft and will show up over time.
Bondo sounds good so I won't say anything bad about it.
Fixall is what I was taught to use in the 70's and has never let me down.

Either bondo or fixall will need to be redone if the table is ever lifted.
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Fix-all will leave little bits of rocks everywhere under the cloth if a vacuum is used to clean the cloth, worse if it's not mixed with water correctly;)
 
realkingcobra said:
Fix-all will leave little bits of rocks everywhere under the cloth if a vacuum is used to clean the cloth, worse if it's not mixed with water correctly;)
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Although I've never had an issue with the tiny rocks, I can see how that would happen (if not mixed properly). Fortunately, I mix it properly :D
 
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