Finishing drawers for Pantry

[matt swiderski]

Hey all,
I have built a pantry and would like to install pull out drawers for it. However I am confused about what to finish the drawers with. I am using birch as the sides, and prefinished maple as the bottom. After doing some research, I have found that poly will have an oder for a long time, is this just oil base poly or water based poly too? I have also thought about shellac. Do you all have any ideas where I wont be smelling the finish after I install them? Thanks for helping.
Matt

[Howard Acheson]

Waterborne acrylic or shellac will work just fine. It's oil based finishes that have the lingering odor.

[matt swiderski]

That's what I thought. Just wanted to make sure before I started. Thanks for the response.
Matt

[Mike De Luca]

Have you looked into pre-catalyzed lacquer...?

Wears like cast iron. I've seen spray cans of it at the local woodworkers store, but haven't looked into spraying it from a pressure pot... old school here...

The spray cans might be okay for a small job...

Once set you can wipe it off with acetone... great stuff...

[Jim Becker]

Have you looked into pre-catalyzed lacquer...?

Pre-cat lacquer isn't something that should be used without a proper application environment for safety reasons. The same applies to "regular" solvent-based lacquers. For this reason, Howie's recommendations would also be my own...Shellac or a water borne product. I use either, depending on the project if I decide to even finish the drawer boxes.

[Scott Holmes]

I do drawer cases with either shellac or water-borne.

[Joe Chritz]

Regular out of the can and thinned to 2# Bullseye shellac here.

Joe