Finishing for a Commercial Setting

[Mike Nauman]

I am relatively new to furniture production and finishing. I have a small design/build studio in Ohio, we do a lot of full design and build outs for restaurants, stores and residential customers. In the past we have used a lot of wipe on tung oil, poly and shellac. However is there another finish I should consider for more commercial setting? I have used Waterlox in the past but its not light on the pocket book.

I am debating about setting up a spray booth so that is also on horizon. However, I don't know what is best to spray for beginners like myself.

Cheers.

[Richard Coers]

You think Waterlox is expensive? Wait till you buy a real commercial finish. I would not consider anything in a resturant except conversion varnish, either solvent or water based. Use Target Coatings for your water based, and possibly Sherwin Williams for you solvent based products. I know the solvent based has an acid catalyst, so paint booth is a necessity. How have you been keeping the dust from settling on those slow finishes you are currently using? You must have a clean room. I'm surprised that you've gotten by with the finishes you have mentioned. Resturants are constantly cleaning with chemical solutions, many are alcohol or ammonia based, and those will eat up a shellac finish in no time. Add in the high wear, and you really need the tough stuff.

[Mike Nauman]

Thanks for feedback, I agree conversion varnish would be the way to go. The Target conversion varnish is almost half the price of waterlox so that is great as well. We do have a nice clean setup for those slow finishes, however we are just now getting into the commercial settings and preferred to use those on our home good pieces. I think a nice spray booth setup with some conversion varnish will be the way to go.

[Jeff Duncan]

Spraying commercial finishes in a production quantity requires a bit of investment. Your talking about a spray booth and likely an upgrade in spray equipment. If you don't have spray equipment now, your cheapest solution will be a turbine system. Leaves a decent finish but is very slow and produces a lot of overspray. Next up would likely be a HVLP gun with pressure pot and appropriate air supply and filters. Good finish but also produces a lot of overspray. Most of the bigger shops are using airless systems, Kremlin being the top of the heap and most popular from what I've seen. Sprays quite fast with little overspray and also fairly easy to clean.

Water based finishes vs solvent based is still a somewhat hot topic among finishers. I started out using WB and really tried for about 7 years to make them work. They are much more finicky than solvents and I finally gave in and went back to solvents. When you have a product that needs to get out the door and withstand abusive environments it's tough to stick with WB finishes in my experience. You'll have to come to your own decision on that one though;)

As far as Poly and shellac these IMHO should pretty much never be used on anything that's going into a store or restaurant. Poly is much too slow a drying finish to be good for much, and shellac has little protection compared with other available finishes. Now shellac can be used as a "primer" in certain situations, but these are just not finishes you'll find in pro use. I could see oils being used on stuff that's not subject to any type of use. Like the legs on a display table for instance. But outside of that they really have no business in these environments either.

Lastly if you really are getting into a production setting, you may want to start tracking down some forums dedicated to professional finishing. The more you finish, the more questions your going to have.....trust me on that one;)

good luck,
JeffD

[Mike Nauman]

Thanks Jeff, that is great insight. I am thinking for this project I will end up using Waterlox because I know how to do it right and I can get it out the door in time. However, I will hopefully be setting up a Hvlp system with the compressor I have now and just upgrading my system as I can afford it. I've also been told HVLP is a great system for doing lots of different finishing types and can be pretty adaptable for my occasional need to spray.

Hav

Spraying commercial finishes in a production quantity requires a bit of investment. Your talking about a spray booth and likely an upgrade in spray equipment. If you don't have spray equipment now, your cheapest solution will be a turbine system. Leaves a decent finish but is very slow and produces a lot of overspray. Next up would likely be a HVLP gun with pressure pot and appropriate air supply and filters. Good finish but also produces a lot of overspray. Most of the bigger shops are using airless systems, Kremlin being the top of the heap and most popular from what I've seen. Sprays quite fast with little overspray and also fairly easy to clean.

Water based finishes vs solvent based is still a somewhat hot topic among finishers. I started out using WB and really tried for about 7 years to make them work. They are much more finicky than solvents and I finally gave in and went back to solvents. When you have a product that needs to get out the door and withstand abusive environments it's tough to stick with WB finishes in my experience. You'll have to come to your own decision on that one though;)

As far as Poly and shellac these IMHO should pretty much never be used on anything that's going into a store or restaurant. Poly is much too slow a drying finish to be good for much, and shellac has little protection compared with other available finishes. Now shellac can be used as a "primer" in certain situations, but these are just not finishes you'll find in pro use. I could see oils being used on stuff that's not subject to any type of use. Like the legs on a display table for instance. But outside of that they really have no business in these environments either.

Lastly if you really are getting into a production setting, you may want to start tracking down some forums dedicated to professional finishing. The more you finish, the more questions your going to have.....trust me on that one;)

good luck,
JeffD