Experience with Collinite 885 for cast iron tops? Or any other paste wax with minimal silicone?

This took a while to post since it was my first post, they review it first or something. In the mean time I’ve posted this question in other places and the overall response seems to be why take the chance if it has silicone in it. There are other paste waxes, they may not be as hard but they work fine.

Never used 3-36, but I use a lot of CRC products.
You can use a plain old candle. Rub it on, buff it off.

Thanks for the reply.

I’ve used paraffin wax which is what most candles are, I think, on hand planes. Seen it may take a while to do a table saw top.

Do you buff the candle wax by hand or with an electric buffer?

Since I only use water-based finishes, silicone is a non issue for me. Have a spray bottle on hand at all times, and use it whenever and wherever I want.

Ah, ok, so silicone only affects oil based finishes?

Hello,
I have a lot of experience with 845, 915 and 476S. I pretty much have the 845 and 476S in stock all the time. I use it on everything in my shop that is cast iron aluminum and even my Woodpeckers drill press table. I use it on every faucet in the house and the bathroom vanity top as well. Both cars get double coats once in the spring and again right before the snow flies. Collinite is one of the unsung heroes of waxes. It is top notch and lasts a long time. I have tried a lot of the “new whiz bang products and none of them out perform it. My buddie is always trying the latest nd greatest on his Beemer and every time he comes over he looks at my car and asks if I just waxed it and I tell him no its been months since I did it and he never believes me. My next door neighbor has a show Vete 1960 something vintage and he finely converted to it a few years ago. Collinite has been making wax for a long time, the majority of their products are for commercial use, the consumer market was an afterthought for them. If I sound like a fan boy I am. It is a great product and it doesn’t have a premium price tag.

Back to the issue at hand. If you go with it on your cast iron tops and hand planes prep is important. For your initial application clean and scotch brite the surface (Gray then White) immediately before application. I put 2-3 consecutive coats (polish out each coat) on at a time. Depending on how much use the surface gets will dictate reapplication intervals. I do my table saw about 4x a year. For reaps I just wipe with a damp rag (alcohol or MS) let dry then apply 2 coats. It will not stop rust that exists – it will slow the regrowth but those areas if they exist need a lot of attention before the first treatment to remove as much as possible.

-- Cheap is expensive! - my Dad

Silicone wrecks havoc on typical nitro-cellulose lacquers. I’ve used water-based going on 20 years, and never had the slightest concern or effect from silicone spray. So I’m guessing that water-based finishes are not particularly sensitive to silicone. On this site, there are folks way more savvy than me on finishes, so I would defer to the experts for more authoritative advice.

OnHillWW, Thanks, shining reviews like yours is why I’m so interested in it. Everyone who talks about it just loves it. There is so much concern about silicone on every woodworking forum I’m trying to find as much info about people who use it for that. Do you do much finishing? If so, what kinds? Have you had any finishing issues?

Sark, thanks for getting back. I’m trying to shift to mainly water based but still have some oil based to use. Oil based does so nice, but so bad for your brain and hard to clean up.

I use everything from Waterlox, Epifanes Spar, rattle can lacquer to Osmo never an issue but everything I do gets sanded very well prior to application of any finish.

-- Cheap is expensive! - my Dad

Thanks OnhillWW, that’s really good to hear. I went ahead and coated some cast iron tops with the collinite 885 and felt I’d made a grave mistake. I sand very well before any finish, so I should be good.

It is very slick and it seems to go on thick. The protection seems very good. It also leaves the cast iron looking very nice.

I was planning to clean it off but I may do a couple small projects and finish them and see how they turn out.

Thanks again, your experience is good to hear.