advice about removing superglue

November 22, 2011 9:50 PM

I inadvertently left an open vial of super glue on top of my antique desk, and then leaned on it with my elbow. Now it's stuck on with a rock-hard ring that looks like a satellite view of a mountain range, a centimeter wide at its base and peaks of a millimeter or so. I've tried applying nail polish remover with little success: the glue is just too thick. I hesitate to scrape at it with a knife because doing so will trash the finish and perhaps gouge the wood, but I'm thinking that may be my only option. Any advice?
posted by BadgerDoctor to Home & Garden (14 answers total)

Response by poster: just to clarify, it's the vial of super glue that's stuck to the desk, not my elbow. Thanks
posted by BadgerDoctor at 9:54 PM on November 22, 2011 [9 favorites]

Once I did exactly that and scraping it with a knife caused it to somehow sink itself into the wood so it was level with the surface and unreachable. I had a bit of super glue bottle stuck in the surface until we sanded and painted over it. So if you try that, don't do whatever the hell I did to manage that.
posted by artychoke at 10:02 PM on November 22, 2011

I've had good luck with acetone in the past (that's what's in your nail polish remover). Try applying acetone with a paintbrush, wait quite a while for it to soak in and the top layer should get soft enough to rub off. If there's a bunch of glue, you'll have to repeat layer by layer, but eventually it'll all rub off.

I've never used it, but apparently Super Glue Remover also exists.
posted by notpeter at 10:07 PM on November 22, 2011

Maybe soak a cotton ball with nail polish remover and let it sit on glue spot a bit to soften, then work glue off with a wooden scraper, like a chopstick or popsicle stick.

Other suggestion is to use amomnia, which doesn't usually ruin finishes but does remove a lot of adhesives. Test if you want to be sure.
posted by shoesietart at 10:07 PM on November 22, 2011

There are special chemicals to do this.

Also, Removing super glue.
posted by fake at 10:07 PM on November 22, 2011

If you try letting a cotton ball or piece of rag soaked in acetone sit on top of the blob of glue, you might want to cover that with some plastic or foil to keep it from evaporating while it soaks into the glue.
posted by JiBB at 10:09 PM on November 22, 2011

An antique desk probably doesn't have the most impermeable finish in the world. If a solvent is capable of dissolving superglue it is almost certainly going to do significant damage to the underlying finish. It is also likely that the glue has bonded with the finish in such a way that that there is no defined glue/finish threshold.

I'd recommend talking to a cabinetmaker or someone else skilled enough to use bladed tools without damaging the timber and then refinishing that area of the desk.

It would also help if you could clarify how the desk is finished.
posted by deadwax at 10:20 PM on November 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

FWIW, following on from deadwax, An antique desk will probably have a shellac finish (if it's dark anyway). Fairly simple to re-apply.
posted by singingfish at 10:22 PM on November 22, 2011

I've had some luck using a window scraper of this general type for things like this. If you are careful with the angle, the razor will slide over the smooth finish and cut off the super glue.
posted by Harald74 at 11:05 PM on November 22, 2011

If you're going to continue with the nail polish remover, make sure that you're using acetone-based nail polish remover. Many of the newer products use other solvents, where my understanding is that you want the acetone to remove superglue. The label on the bottle should tell you what you've got.

You can often find the superglue remover products mentioned above at local hobby stores, should you not want to deal with online ordering and a lengthy delay over the holiday (assuming you're in the US).
posted by zachlipton at 11:11 PM on November 22, 2011

I've had good luck with acetone in the past (that's what's in your nail polish remover).

Not if you are using the now more comonly available non-acetone nail polish remover. Acetone is better for superglue.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 5:30 AM on November 23, 2011

Best answer: You might want to surround your hardened glue island with a lagoon of sticky tape, then go at it with sandpaper wrapped around a small lump of wood; monitor the condition of the sticky tape and replace it as it gets ripped up by the sandpaper. Once you've knocked the peaks down, widen out your lagoon a tiny bit and switch to a finer grade of paper backed by your finger. When the color and smell of the sanding dust starts to change, you'll know you're biting into the old surface finish and you can take off the tape and spot-polish.
posted by flabdablet at 6:09 AM on November 23, 2011 [1 favorite]

I think flabdablet's answer is probably best. One thing to try would be to get a straightedge and try to see if you can get it to peel off. You might take a layer of finish off, but as others have mentioned, that's pretty easy to fix. I would be worried about using solvents because they can seep into the wood and stain it permanently.
posted by gjc at 6:55 AM on November 23, 2011

If you think you might have to refinish the desk top as a result of this, do not use a knife to scrape off the glue or use just sandpaper. Us a sanding block or a card scraper. Otherwise you're going to take a way more finish / wood than you need to.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 12:28 AM on November 24, 2011