Interior Has Years of Teak Oil and Grime to Be Removed

[senormechanico]

Open the hatches and put a house type box fan blowing in on the upwind hatch.
Start cleaning with your favorite pick of the above suggestions.

[capngeo]

Originally Posted by MarkSF

That'll be free from fumes will it?

Nope... But THOSE fumes won't kill you!

[skipmac]

I would go with seniormechanico's suggestion. Have tried it before and works very well

Plan B, borrom a SCUBA tank and use the reg.

[tsl]

OK, I 'm heading to the boat with my arsenal of ideas and supplies you all suggested (Many Thanks to ALL)
TSP -This is high octaine (sodium bicarb)so I'll leave the baking soda home. I'm not sure TSP will leach out all the old oil so my teak treatment (caustic and acid)can do it's job but my companionway steps have little oil on them and a lot of ground in dirt. I'm sure the TSP will help there.
Cabinet scraper- I'll use my window ice scraper. I'll soften then gunk with the chemicals and then scrap it off avoiding the need to liquidity all the gunk.
Turpentine - not good as it absorbs through skin. If I'm wearing gloves I use Toluene. You may be thinking Mineral spirits. It does not go through your skin but is not much better to breath than toluene. I'll bring along some odorless mineral spirits. It does not go through skin and has many of the harmful volatile ingredients removed.
No silicone. Good point I do want to varnish after this.
Simple green. I have a product similar. I'll test it along side the TSP.
Air hood, In my previous life , I was a paint engineer. Your hood suggestion is good much better than a respirator in the heat. I suggest a much cheaper version http://www.axispro.com/index.php?productID=117
I'm taking my box fan suggestion just in case I need to use the heavy weights so no respirator or hood should be needed
The Teak Care by don Casey appears to be for exterior teak. I could not find much addressing this issue.
SeaWater, I'm in Wisconsin. Can you get this at West Marine???
Again thanks for the suggestions but I may need to resort to solvents . After all, by definition, that is what they are used for. Dissolving things like twenty so years of crud.
I'm going to try actone and follow it up with immediately with Isopropyl alcohol but I'm thinking the acetone will evaporate too fast so I'll pick up some toluene or xylene. All this followed by a lot of grain alcohol once the stripping is over.

[minaret]

Toluene and xylene are bad nasty, but will certainly get the job done. Methyl Ethyl Ketone will give similar results and is slightly less likely to cause you to pass out from fumes. If you go with toluene or xylene I would definitely recommend using a decent respirator and not just fans. MEK too.

"SeaWater, I'm in Wisconsin. Can you get this at West Marine???"

I believe she ment seawater, as in the kind that comes from the ocean. It's free.
If you use Teka, remember that it can cause severe staining on paint or gelcoat. Mask off.
Fans on the intake side are great, but I have seen flash ignition acheived with a fan during heavy acetone wipes twice now. The first time was hilarious, the second not so much. Also seen it done with a vacuum...

Good luck and stay safe!

[Bash]

I would recommend against using Toluene or MEK indoors. You don't need harsh solvents for this job, unless you consider elbow grease a solvent.

[David M]

Start with acetone and an organic respirator or positive pressure respirator, ideally the latter. Also use a big box fan over a deck hatch blowing outwards.

Acetone will not hurt the teak nor leave a smell behind. I have used it plenty of times on teak and it does not harm the wood. It can damage other things so use it cautiously.

[tsl]

I was joking about the sea water. But I'm disapointed that they don't try to sell it.

So far the cleaners have not done much . Nice day today in the 70's the fan has a good flow through the boat.

Update coming after lunch

[senormechanico]

Ai ewsedto ouz ztroung kleanrz wit noo are sucilatiun.

thay dint hert ma breane atoll ! im stll rely smaurt...

[MarkSF]

Originally Posted by Boracay

My experience has been that mask filters don't seem to supply clean air. After a while one doesn't notice fairy strong fumes. I ended up using limited solvents and keeping everything well ventilated.

I did a quick search and came up with a suggestion for "Loose-fitting hood supplied-air respirators". Further checking eBay found one for under $350.

If I'd known this at the time I would have brought one, even at the extortionate freight rates to Oz.

It sounds like you want to spend a fair bit of time getting the teak into peak condition. Why not spring for some proper protection? It could be sold when you've finished to one of the cheapskates my research also found.

$350 is a lot cheaper than any of the alternatives...

I have a proper filtering respirator with VOC cartridges. I used it to spray a car, works pretty well.

[Cheechako]

How about wd40? should loosen up the oily gunk... not too noxious... Or put two big fans on the boat: one forcing air in the forward hatch and one at the companionway pulling it out. I would just use the turpentine with the fans, but I'm not very sensitive to chemicals. Some people are. Wet a bulkhead good, then retreat outside for a minute, then back in and wipe it off.
Acetone, Mek etc are VERY explosive... like gasoline. Would you use gasoline? One little relay/spark and you wont have to worry about the oily teak issue! Even your fans would need to be sparkless vapor tight motors.... I have witnessed an explosion from using a vacuum cleaner with Acetone fumes nearby....

[smurphny]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

How about wd40? should loosen up the oily gunk... not too noxious... Or put two big fans on the boat: one forcing air in the forward hatch and one at the companionway pulling it out. I would just use the turpentine with the fans, but I'm not very sensitive to chemicals. Some people are. Wet a bulkhead good, then retreat outside for a minute, then back in and wipe it off.
Acetone, Mek etc are VERY explosive... like gasoline. Would you use gasoline? One little relay/spark and you wont have to worry about the oily teak issue! Even your fans would need to be sparkless vapor tight motors.... I have witnessed an explosion from using a vacuum cleaner with Acetone fumes nearby....

1+ on the warning about acetone/lacquer thinner/MEK/contact cement. Many Formica renovation jobs have been interrupted by a refrigerator coming on and blowing the guy doing the laminating and sometimes the homeowner out the back door!

[senormechanico]

A vacuum cleaner and a jet engine are basically the same design.

[s/vfootloose]

I used a TSP solution that I found at Home Depot in the paint dept. It was a liquid and came in gal. jugs. It took several times but came clean. I used a small pot with the TSP and a 5 gal. bucket with clean water to rinse. I put it on and rinsed using scrubby sponges. Then I wiped it all down with acetone, sanded, wiped again. I used satin finish on the bulkheads and gloss on the trim,doors etc. It looks great but it was probably the nastiest job I have ever done. It was worse than grinding the bottom.

[Cheechako]

yeah, TSP is nasty stuff but cleans super! Hope you wore gloves...They have it in spray cans now... BTW... it's the best F/G deck cleaner you can ever get... but definitely not enviro friendly....