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Decanting

Decanting a lubricant or a finish

By Dwight Davis, Founder

On this page11
The lubricant is easy chemistry and the finish is a color-matching problem.

Why lubricants get decanted

A gallon of way oil or cutting fluid is the economic purchase and a useless object at a machine. A small bottle with a precise spout is what the job needs.

Which makes the closure the product

26 spouted closures and 36 disc tops on this shelf. For oil onto a specific spot, a needle spout or a precise disc top does more than the bottle does.

Most oils are kind to resins

Which puts a lubricant decant in HDPE comfortably and makes this the easiest of the four transfers. 156 HDPE containers, with the packer bottle at 46 the obvious shape.

But a cutting fluid is not just an oil

Water-miscible fluids carry biocides and the mix goes off, and a straight cutting oil may carry additives that attack a liner. The data sheet is still the route.

Touch up finish is a different problem

Paint, lacquer or stain kept to repair a piece later. The requirement is not dispensing, it is that in two years the contents still match what was put on the work.

Which makes evaporation the whole question

A finish that lost carrier is a finish that dried thicker and darker. The liner and the headspace decide whether the touch up matches or announces itself.

And light does the rest

The archetype carries light sensitive and the shelf answers with 134 amber or dark amber containers. For a stain kept for years, amber plus a closed cupboard is the pairing.

Label it with the job, not the product

A touch up bottle wants the room, the piece and the date as much as the product identifier. The hazard label is a separate requirement and both belong on it.

Fill it full

The opposite of the usual advice, and right here: headspace is the enemy of a finish kept for years. Choose the smallest container that holds what you need to keep.

A solvent-borne finish brings the table back

Flash point and initial boiling point, category, container limit. A lacquer thinner decant is a Table H-12 question and an oil is not.

References

The archetype behind this shelf is ind-chemical: 100 to 20,000 mL, narrow mouth, HDPE and glass, light sensitive, child resistant, poured, with "chemical resistance is the entire decision, check the resin chart first" as its stated reason. All nine leaves sit on it, including the three that store dry consumable parts rather than a liquid.
The Davis Pack Supply catalog, measured 18 October 2026. The shop consumables shelf is 1,389 rows: 750 containers and 639 closures. 10 mL to 9,464 mL with a median of 120; 85 containers over a pint, 23 over a quart, 3 over a gallon and none over five gallons. 390 PET, 156 HDPE, 127 glass, 76 PP and 1 LDPE, and no metal containers or safety cans. Of the 127 glass containers, 6 are over a pint. 510 bottles, 219 jars, 16 tubs and pails, 4 jugs. 134 amber or dark amber. Closures: 373 continuous thread, 43 dropper assemblies, 39 child resistant, 36 disc top, 27 dome lids, 26 spouted, 19 flip top, 19 lug and twist, 14 phenolic, 7 buttress.
29 CFR 1910.106(d)(2), Table H-12, maximum allowable size of containers and portable tanks for flammable liquids. Glass or approved plastic: 1 pt for Category 1, 1 qt for Category 2, 1 gal for Categories 3 and 4. Metal other than DOT drums: 1 gal for Category 1, 5 gal for Categories 2 through 4. Safety cans: 2 gal for Category 1, 5 gal thereafter. Metal drums to DOT specification: 60 gal. Approved portable tanks: 660 gal. Paragraph (d)(2)(i) adds that "only approved containers and portable tanks shall be used" and that metal containers meeting the requirements of 49 CFR chapter I "shall be deemed to be acceptable". osha.gov
Written from 29 CFR 1910.106(d)(2) and Table H-12, 29 CFR 1910.1200(f) and Appendix B Table B.6.1, and from the catalog as it stood on 18 October 2026. Nothing here establishes that a container is an approved container for flammable liquid storage, which is a word the regulation uses and our data does not support. Fire codes, state plans and insurers sit on top of all of this.