Originally Posted by peripatetic
Thanks, but maybe you could fill me in on another 'key word': MEK. What is this in layman's terms? Would this be the aforementioned mineral spirits, or kerosene or what? The more info youse give, the more confused I'm becoming. I went into the hardware store today, looked at the mineral spirits, and decided that I really didn't want to bring home a whole bottle of the stuff just for one tar removal job, only to be stuck with a nasty and corrosive chemical under the kitchen sink and right next to my precious worm composting bin. I left with a couple of brillo pads at the suggestion of the store clerk; for the record, he said mineral spirits wouldn't work, and he pointed me to some kind of gunk remover, but that looked nasty, too. So which one am I gonna use, guys?
You don't want MEK (= methyl ethyl ketone) or brillo pads (will ruin your finish). Buy a small container of mineral spirits or similar (kerosene, perhaps lighter fluid). There is a rule of thumb in chemistry, "like dissolves like", and since tar contains a mixture of non-polar hydrocarbon molecules you will need a similarly non-polar solvent, none of which have very nice safety warning labels. As far as these things go, mineral spirits aren't too bad, and they aren't 'corrosive'; just keep the top securely closed and you can keep it next to your worms....