How To Remove Oil From Oilite Bronze Bushing Material?

Cadillac STS

Cadillac STS

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I have some large oilite bronze bushings about 1.25 inch by 3 inches long. I want to use them to make a handle for something. I started out with buffing off the surface to a nice bright bronze color and did some shaping on my lathe for what I wanted. Problem is when you touch the nice handle your fingers turn black from the oil in the "pores" of the metal. Close examination shows there are tiny holes where the oil is coming from in the metal.

How to de-oil the surface so it can be handled without giving off oil?
 
I was thinking if I got the oil from the open pores then the sealed ones would stop leaking unless there is some wear like in a friction bushing situation where it is supposed to.

What I am trying (Since I went this far and got the handle to what I want it to look like) is hit it with some brake cleaner that takes oil away and then putting it in a bath of strong concentration Dawn dish soap in hot water over night. Has been 2 nights and it seems to be working as well as leaving a nice patina look to the metal.

I just wondered what others might have done.

I was also thinking of when I get all the pores clean then mount it on my metal lathe and seal it with bees wax to seal the pores like would with a wood project on my wood lathe. Friction on the part with the wax makes it melt into pores.
 
I would try soaking it in Acetone overnight. Keep the oily Acetone for mixing 50-50 $ with ATF for loosening stubborn bolts etc., and repeat as necessary. The sintered bronze is like open cell foam & holds quite a lot of oil. Unrelated info: reaming Oilite bearings typically seals over the bearing surface and defeats the lubricating capability of the material. Since you did some machining & polishing it may be difficult to purge the oil with any of the methods suggested.
 
Our QA department used to remove oil from impregnated bearings all the time when we qualified new suppliers to ensure the correct minimum oil content. It was a sort of distillation process by heating the bearing in a solvent. Soxhlet process.
You aren't interested in measuring the volume of oil, just getting it out, so heating in a solvent should get you pretty good results.

David
 
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