I have watched all the vids on prepping your ceramic tile for painting. Everyone says to wash your tile with
acetone or lacquer thinner first to remove the “oil film” off the tile. I got thinking about that and remembered my mother baked ceramics for 40 years. When that tile comes out of the kiln at 1800 degrees f., there is nothing left on the tile oil wise. So I called Materials Marketing in San Antonio, Tx. (210-731-8453). I was informed that I was correct and there is no oil film on the tile. Materials Marking told me to just wipe the tile with windex and go for the show. Yes, I still use lacquer thinner to wash clean my messed up tiles and that’s the only time I use it. So please, stop wasting time and money cleaning tiles that don’t it.
Your mom’s tiles didn’t sit in a dirty factory warehouse and probably didn’t get handled by a lot of people with dirty/sweaty/greasy fingers.
I killed 3 years of my life working in a tile factory and I always clean mine with some solvent. Acetone, alcohol, whatever. That stuff is cheap and it doesn’t take much to clean a tile.
I’ve bought boxes of tile that were pretty obviously dirty. Just because they were all clean and sterile when they came out of the kiln doesn’t mean they weren’t a filthy mess when they went in the box.
hello Hank: I’m guessing that you have a few years on me, I’m pushing 66 now. And I bet you did kill a few years of your life in a tile plant and that plant was more than likely an old one. Yes, everything was done by hand and yes there were dirty hands and fingers moving / packing by hand. But now days human hands don’t hardly touch the product anymore. Robotics is taken over. Go to this this website if you would please.
my brother and I are co-owners of this company. " volkstech.com " This is what I do, well, did do. Semiretired now. But my point is now days your almost not going to have oil on the tile. I also can see a high pressure oil lines bursting and that would leave a oil film on everything for a month after clean up.
Yes I see natural air born dirt and dust alone with packing material. But I myself have never seen any oil remains on my white paper towels.
Have fun today R. Cline
Hi Ray: I expect to see natural air born dust and dirt, and see packing trash also. That is no big problem, my only problem is that I live in a tiny town. We have one black top road, main hi-way through town, all side streets are dirt and for some reasons everyone thinks they have to race 60 miles an hour when passing my house. Try painting outside in that.
There is the tile. Then there is the glase- the glossy stuff. That fires about 2000 degrees. I would think a simple cleaner would work fine. One way to tell, give a tile a try and check the outcome. Thanks for the tip.
