Osmo LED Smart Oil

[luvmytoolz]

Are you sure the UV curing unit is a full $4K for you? Dusty said in an Instagram comment on that same video that that the lamp was around 1K in Canada which seems wildly low...it's pushing 2K here in the US, but that might be from crazy tarrifs. Everything imported to the US is nutty expensive now. All Osmo products took a huge jump in the last year.

Have you checked with your Osmo dealer/rep for a price?

I haven't checked with Osmo yet, but yes unfortunately the single supplier is pretty expensive.

In Oz we get absolutely reamed on anything from Europe or the States. A local supplier has a much cheaper 25W Cuvo branded one, but my concern is that it's one of the Asian imports, it might be great or it might be ordinary.

 

[PaulMarcel]

Long ago, I went and helped a fellow FOGger take a dining table top to a local drawer factory. Monster facility and only makes drawers. He was having them run the table top through a UV curing machine. I hadn't heard of that at the time. Popped it on a conveyor, first booth sprayed the top from all sides leaving what looked like a goopy mess. Advanced to the next booth where iirc it vibrated the piece slightly. Third booth warmed it up for a bit (not super hot, but likely enough to ensure a good cure). Last booth was the UV chamber. It came out perfect. Been eager for some of that tech to be available for us. The shop guy pulled out a sample board that had fully cured. Ran an 80 grit sander on it for a while and you couldn't tell. Crazy.

The more crazy part was that we took the tabletop there, got it clear-coated, then drove to the customer's place and installed it. Nice.

 

[Chainring]

Blacktail Studio uses a UV curing finish and he uses one heck of a fan cooled LED UV wand to do the curing. Vesting oil is what he calls it.

 

[luvmytoolz]

Blacktail Studio uses a UV curing finish and he uses one heck of a fan cooled LED UV wand to do the curing. Vesting oil is what he calls it.

Cam uses the large $4k light I posted a pic of earlier in the thread, as well as the small handheld cordless one I've attached a pic of here that's $1k here in Oz.

The Cuvo branded ones I also attached a pic of earlier seem to be used professionally for the Clean Armor UV cured finish product (cures from 365nm to 405nm), and from reviews and videos appear to be legit good. Cheaper than the Osmo unit but still expensive I think:

CUVO SlimUV H24 Handheld UV Curing Light – Compact Precision

Compact 305 mm handheld UV curing light for Clean Armor coatings. The CUVO H24 cures small areas quickly and evenly with professional precision and minimal heat.

hammerroo.com.au

I have been doing some digging and these dirt cheap units on Ali seem to have very good reviews, and the power output is incredible, the 800W in particular puts out 1100mW/cm2 and is $227AUD shipped:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008818386114.html

 

[smorgasbord]

Blacktail Studio uses a UV curing finish and he uses one heck of a fan cooled LED UV wand to do the curing. Vesting oil is what he calls it.

Here is Vesting's page:

VESTING LED-Hardwax Oil | LED Coating Solutions

LED Coating Solutions supplies Vesting LED-Hardwax Oils. Vesting LED-Hardwax Oils cure instantly with our line of LED curing equipment. Standard & custom colors available.

ledcoatingsolutions.com

I think Cam also sells it.

 

[luvmytoolz]

So with bated breath and much excitement I await the arrival of the 800w UV light I ordered from Ali. Should be here today or in the next few days. I also ordered a Linshang Radiometer so I can measure the output.

No luck finding a local supplier of the Osmo LED Smart however which was what I really wanted, all the distributors I rang have never heard of it. I might call Osmo Aust and see what they can do.

I went and looked at a ton of videos and the Vestings seems to be really well regarded for holding up to use, and as luck has it a local supplier (Oslek Flooring) has their own branded version which I believe is the same formula licensed or maybe just re-labelled from Vestings. I'm picking up a 1L tin of the "Invisible" on the way home tonight so I'll ask them about that.

I'll be trying it over the weekend, and if it can hold up some abuse and I can get anywhere near the smooth tactile feel I currently get using Odie's Oils I'll be extremely rapt.

I can't understate how exciting this is for me, if it goes well this could be a massive game changer for me.

 

[peter halle]

My can arrived just before the snowstorm and unfortunately sat in the freezing mailbox overnight. You won't have that problem in OZ. Popped it open to sniff - definitely doesn't smell Like regular Osmos products. I then just grabbed a paper towel and rubbed some onto a scrap of walnut. Grabbed the UV curing flashlight from Solarex I had and my glasses and tried to see if it would dry. It did. Now someone else can do something real.

Peter

 

[luvmytoolz]

My can arrived just before the snowstorm and unfortunately sat in the freezing mailbox overnight. You won't have that problem in OZ. Popped it open to sniff - definitely doesn't smell Like regular Osmos products. I then just grabbed a paper towel and rubbed some onto a scrap of walnut. Grabbed the UV curing flashlight from Solarex I had and my glasses and tried to see if it would dry. It did. Now someone else can do something real.

Peter

I was wondering how you went with yours!

Do you reckon you try a hot cup of coffee on it, maybe spill some fresh hot coffee on the sample Peter to see if it leaves rings or water marks?

From what I've seen, Vestings is reported to be more robust in this regard than Osmo, but I'd love to know real world examples.

The fact that these are all zero VOC's is a huge bonus, and no lingering smells.

 

[usernumber1]

if you were to theoretically dip your finger in it, and then cure that with UV, by accident of course. what would that feel like?

 

[peter halle]

Perhaps I will actually try out a larger piece of "rustic" walnut I picked up a couple of years ago. $200 for 200 bd feet. I didn't dry anything on my finger, but, like I said, I just wanted to really see if my little flashlight would work. Last thing I would want to do is purport to show something as less than acceptable if my parts of the equation were the cause. That just wouldn't be right.

Peter

 

[peter halle]

OK. Tried out the Osmo LED Oil today on a piece of walnut. I did it upstairs in my 68 degree multi purpose room. Walnut and oil were all at the same temp. Walnut sanded to 180 using ETS 125. Vacuumed and wiped with fresh clean microfiber. Finish was stirred well per the instruction.

Finish is thicker than regular hard wax oil. Too thick to really brush on. Instructions say to use a microfiber roller - I didn't want to waste a roller for this little bit so I started with a quality foam brush. Much more effective to drip finish off of stir stick then rub in using white woven pad. The finish doesn't seem to soak in as far as regular. So, how well you rug in and wipe will determine how smooth the finish will be. Cured with a Solarex flashlight that has about a 1 1/2 diameter beam. Obviously a larger more powerful light would be be the choice for real work. Curing time for each side was between 3 and 4 minutes.

Sanded / scuffed between coats with maroon woven pad. Instructions call for 320 grit. Wiped clean with microfiber cloth. Left side received three coats, right side received 2 coats. There is a film aspect to this finish as shown by the ridge where the masking tape was removed. There is a slight remaining odor after cure. Too early to say how long that lasts.

Rubbing you hand on the finished board you can feel the wood texture - no plastic film feel. The side that has three coats does feel smoother to the touch than the two coat side.

Liquid Test - Tested both sides with both regular Coke and red wine for 10 minutes. After wiping off there does not seem to be an appearance difference. Washing with water didn't harm either.

Photos with captions:

 

[luvmytoolz]

@peter halle That's a great looking result, thanks for the detail Peter!

From what I can see the buildup looks to be a ridge from along the edge of the tape, with the rest looking to be thinner?

If you can please try a hot cuppa on each side next, I'm really curious to see if it gets heat marks or rings?

My lamp might be delivered today with a bit of luck! I picked up the Led Oil yesterday and the lady did a demo for me, it's just insane rubbing a coat of oil on timber and 3 seconds later under the lamp it's fully cured, just amazing!

 

[luvmytoolz]

Well the UV light (the longer one at the rear in the attached pic) and the Radiometer from AliExpress were both delivered a short while ago. Too late tonight for me to test the finish but I measured the UV output from the 800W UV light.

At 500mm distance it put out a pretty respectable 73mW/cm2, and at 200mm the meter measured 155mW/cm2.

According to the video by Suman posted earlier here, the finish needs a total of 450mW/cm2, so at 200mm, it's within the 3 seconds to cure window.

Tomorrow I'll get the sander out and do some testing with the finish and post the results, and confirm if the UV light does in fact work as good as it theoretically seems it should.

Osmo recommend the UV light be held at a distance of 100-150mm above the timber surface at a rate of 5 seconds per foot, so to cater for the waving around effect on the output, I waved the light back and forth slowly around this distance and the meter measured a pretty decent output of 339mW/cm2!

 

[peter halle]

Well, a coffee mug of boiling water straight from the microwave standing for 10 minutes had no effect. Ice cube and water (to simulate a sweating glass) had no effect after 30 minutes. Dog nails (also called Golden Retriever talons) indented the wood but the finish didn't powder like a scratch. Maybe tomorrow I will attempt a repair to see how it blends. (might be interested in a floor situation.)

Peter

 

[luvmytoolz]

Wow that's a fantastic result, and exactly the sort of thing I'm after! Thanks for testing that Peter!

Ok so the Osmo LED oil lives up to the hype, that's really good to know. Today I'll test the Vestings. It does look to be a thinner solution than the Osmo from what I've seen.

 

[PaulMarcel]

The Golden Retriever Nails test was all I needed