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Vintage threads from the first ten years

previous: Owen I just got a new 5E3 cab with bare ... -- 2/5/2004 12:02 AM

Re: Need Clear Lacquer or Shellac Tips, anyone successful??

2/5/2004 4:40 PM
Jeff Lynch	Re: Need Clear Lacquer or Shellac Tips, anyone successful?? I understand your desire to get it right the first time. Mine came out beautiful, but there were some frightful moments leading up to it. I used a 50/50 mix of Zinzer bullseye orange shellace and denatured alcohol as recommended by several posts here. A china bristle brush is recommended . . . buy a new one just for this project. Losing a bristle in the coat will make you so mad. I used a 2-1/2 angled brush. Take off all the hardware, even the feet/glides. Then put the screws from the feet back in halfway to use to hold the bottom off the floor. Do the bottom first, then put it right side up on the screws from the feet, and continue on the sides, and then the top. Make sure you put a clear coat of sealer on the raw tweed if it did not come with one like bruce's newer cabinets do. This will seal the tweed fabric ends and prevent the shellac from soaking into the material and producing splotches. My near disaster involved coating the cabinet while the humidity was high. If the humidity is over 60 or so, the shellac picks up moisture and turns white and splotchy! Not good. I rubbed off the whited coating and then sanded the whole thing with very light sandpaper to get rid of the corrupted coating. Then I waited for a dry day and did it all again. Excellent results with 3 coats. If I were to do it again I would only use 2 coats because that last coat made it pretty dark. I think two would be perfect, but it is subjective. Dont let my near disaster scare you, the 50/50 zinzer mix is a good vintage method. Others have used spray cans and Honey Pine tinted minwax polyurethane with good results. Put a good coat of johnson paste wax over the finished product for protection for the shellac. Good luck, Jeff

2/5/2004 4:40 PM

Jeff Lynch

Re: Need Clear Lacquer or Shellac Tips, anyone successful??

I understand your desire to get it right the first time. Mine came out beautiful, but there were some frightful moments leading up to it.

I used a 50/50 mix of Zinzer bullseye orange shellace and denatured alcohol as recommended by several posts here. A china bristle brush is recommended . . . buy a new one just for this project. Losing a bristle in the coat will make you so mad. I used a 2-1/2 angled brush. Take off all the hardware, even the feet/glides. Then put the screws from the feet back in halfway to use to hold the bottom off the floor. Do the bottom first, then put it right side up on the screws from the feet, and continue on the sides, and then the top.

Make sure you put a clear coat of sealer on the raw tweed if it did not come with one like bruce's newer cabinets do. This will seal the tweed fabric ends and prevent the shellac from soaking into the material and producing splotches.

My near disaster involved coating the cabinet while the humidity was high. If the humidity is over 60 or so, the shellac picks up moisture and turns white and splotchy! Not good. I rubbed off the whited coating and then sanded the whole thing with very light sandpaper to get rid of the corrupted coating. Then I waited for a dry day and did it all again. Excellent results with 3 coats. If I were to do it again I would only use 2 coats because that last coat made it pretty dark. I think two would be perfect, but it is subjective.

Dont let my near disaster scare you, the 50/50 zinzer mix is a good vintage method. Others have used spray cans and Honey Pine tinted minwax polyurethane with good results.

Put a good coat of johnson paste wax over the finished product for protection for the shellac.

Good luck, Jeff

Replies:

Tom What type of sealer is used to prev... -- 2/12/2004 8:02 AM