Q: My painter sprayed lacquer recently on a hot and humid day and trapped moisture under the finish. Having had experience with this I told him to re-spray with lacquer retarder added to the lacquer and to remove the humidity from the room before re-spraying. This worked to a certain extent but still did not [...]
Q: Should I apply a sanding sealer after staining maple? I read that you cannot use sanding sealer under a sprayed precatalyzed spray lacquer which is what I was thinking of finishing with.
A: That’s half true; stearated sealers, which are one type of sealer, are not compatible under most catalyzed finishes. You must have a [...]
Q: I want to tint clear nitrocellulose lacquer to produce a solid, opaque color. What types of colorants can I use?
A: The ideal choice is called lacquer paste; essentially lacquer with a dense amount of pigment cut into it. You can find it in a wide range of colors at the same industrial supplier outlets [...]
Q: Is there any barrier coat that will allow me to seal waterbased finish on a guitar that has been plagued with fisheye problems, then spray with waterbased over it?
A: I won’t say it is guaranteed, but spraying coat of Zinsser SealCoat usually does an excellent job of creating a waterbased friendly barrier coat. Incidentally, [...]
Q: Our regularly used dining table was refinished in dark brown, high gloss lacquer and shows superficial surface scratches with use. Is this is normal?
A: It is for lacquer, which has only moderate scratch resistance. To make things worse, scratches show more readily on gloss surfaces. Lacquer does have good stain resistance, but not good [...]
Q: Why does lacquer become white sometimes?
A: There are two situations where this can happen. If there is too much diluent and not enough primary solvent in a lacquer thinner mixture, it can cause the resin to precipitate out of the mix as a solid, white particle. These usually look like white specks. The other [...]
Q: How can I know the lacquer thinner I use is good or bad, weak or strong?
A: First, remember that thinner is tagged to the specific lacquer for which it is formulated. Thus, good thinner for one lacquer may be bad thinner for another. Start by listening to the recommendation of the company that sells [...]
Q: What should I add when I want lacquer to dry faster?
A: Lacquer dries by evaporation of the solvent itself. Thus, the best way to make lacquer dry faster is not to add, but to remove any slow drying solvents. If that is not possible, and it is usually not, you can thin the lacquer [...]
Q: What is the effect of acetone, glycol ethers, acetates, and alcohol on lacquer thinner?
A: Please start by reading yesterday’s post. That will give you the categories of solvents. Where they fit depends on the resin base, but to make it simple, we can assume we are talking about cellulose nitrate, and see what they [...]
Q: What is the formulation of lacquer thinner?
A: Lacquer thinner is a soup or mixture of solvents that varies depending on the lacquer it is meant to work with, the dry time required, and sometimes, what problems must be addressed in the spray room. Typically, thinner contains three main categories of chemicals; primary solvents, secondary [...]
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