Why is the interior of the top of my cedar chest sticky?

[lshah72414]

I fabricated a cedar chest for my wife around Thanksgiving/Christmas 2021. Polished, and sealed outside and inside of top only with Osmo Poly-Oil High Solid 3031 Clear Matte. About two weeks after I put it in the bedroom, I opened up the chest and the inside of the top only felt sticky. Thought maybe the Osmo hadn't completely setup( I did leave it for 2 days before attaching to chest). I wiped with paper towels and it was gone, smooth and looked beautiful. Left as is.
Fast forward to today, I opened chest and inside is sticky again, even worse paper towel now sticks, it is like the adhesive you would feel on a sticker. I used isopropyl alcohol and that seems to cut the stickiness. Again looks beautiful, but my question is "Does anybody know what is going on? How do I prevent this from happening in the future? No where else is it sticky, the outside of the chest feels nice and smooth and looks fine. It is only the inside of the top of chest. Room is approximately 70 degrees F, and humidity is normal. Room is dry.
Thank you for your help.

 

[scb_yyz]

Perhaps it's out-gassing of the finish in the enclosed air space. Try keeping the lid slightly open to allow air exchange.  But if it's only on the top, that's weird.. is it sitting in the sunshine, letting the top get hotter than the rest?

 

[Rutabagared]

I’ve experienced this bleeding out of oil over time.  I’ve also had it vary from piece to piece within a project depending on if the pieces are made from the same board/tree.  I usually do not oil the inside of cases due to outgassing, odor, etc.  If I choose to apply any finish at all to the interior, I limit it to shellac.

I would apply two coats of shellac to the interior.  Wipe it down with mineral spirits first and smooth the final coat to your liking.  That should solve the issue.

 

[lshah72414]

Thank you for responses.
Chest does not sit in sun, and it is only the inside of the top(area not exposed directly to air), not the outside which is sticky. I did leave lid open for a day the first time and thought all was well. The inside is not hermetically sealed, but top is heavy and creates somewhat of a seal, so perhaps that is the problem. Will try mineral spirits and shellac if this continues. Never had this happen before.
Thank you again

 

[Rutabagared]

Good luck!

Ironically, I recently had this happen to two tops for cedar chests when they were exposed to heat/sun (as mentioned above) directly before applying the topcoats.  The heat drew the oil out and created fisheyes in the topcoat, resulting in me having to chemically strip the tops and start over (see photos). In the last photo you can see the residual oil bleeding out of the top after removing the stripper.

Shellac is a bit of a miracle finish in regard to its sealing abilities.  When I reworked the tops, I applied boiled linseed oil in the evening, wiped off excess, and sprayed two coats of shellac over it the following morning (about 12 hours later) with no adherence issues, so it all worked out in the end.