Cleaning dry shellac off of a chuck

[Brian Kent]

I am cleaning up a chuck and have some shellac spots. Will dried shellac come off with alcohol or acetate or something else?

[Roger Chandler]

I am cleaning up a chuck and have some shellac spots. Will dried shellac come off with alcohol or acetate or something else?

Shellac is thinned with denatured alcohol when in flake form.............you should be able to clean your chuck with DNA or mineral spirits.

[Brian Kent]

I have tried mineral spirits without success and I'll try DNA.

[Chip Sutherland]

DNA works for me.

[John Beaver]

I've had success with thinner. Next step would be acetone.

[John Keeton]

0000 steel wool soaked with DNA is the standard treatment I use.

[Fred Belknap]

If you spray shellac with the bowl attached to the lathe be sure to put tape over the index holes. The shellac makes it hard to screw the index pen in. DAMHIKT

[John Coloccia]

I'm surprised it doesn't just chip off. As John says, alcohol with a little scrubbing takes it right off. Oddly enough, shellac will generally NOT dissolve in Acetone by itself. It needs a polar solvent to dissolve. You can make it dissolve in Acetone by adding a little water or alcohol to it, but alcohol seems to work best.

FWIW, I prefer Scotchbrite pads to steel wool for this kind of thing. The steel wool particles get everywhere and if you don't get them all they'll start to rust. Just my preference.

[Jason Roehl]

Shellac does not cure--that is, there is no chemical reaction that changes the molecular formula of the solids. It's merely a question of the solvent evaporating. Thick coats take longer because the solvent evaporates to the air quickly, leaving a film that is a vapor barrier to the shellac underneath that may still have some trapped solvent in it. Anyway, you can pretty much endlessly dry out shellac and redissolve it in its solvent--which is alcohol. Isopropyl, ethyl, methyl, doesn't matter, save for your tolerance for their toxicity or cost.

Hold a rag dampened with alcohol against the spots for a few seconds, then wipe them off.

Ammonia also works, but it's nastier to use in my opinion, and due to the high water content, turns the shellac into a sort of gooey, gelatinous mess without fully dissolving it. When washing out a shellac brush, I'll rinse in alcohol first, then wash with an ammonia solution, then rinse with water.

[John Coloccia]

You know what's funny...the water is probably doing most of the dissolving, and the ammonia is probably mainly acting to raise the PH of the water. Shellac needs a basic solvent to dissolve it. It may actually work better if you dilute the ammonia with more water. Just a guess, but maybe worth a try the next time you clean a brush.

[Jason Roehl]

Considering I'm using typically available ammonia, which is usually 3% (I had some "janitor-strength" once, at 6%, which was STRONG!), and with the little bit of that 3% that I use diluted in water, it's probably in the neighborhood of 0.25-0.5%, which is pretty weak. I think there's more to it than straight dissolution with ammonia/water--the lac seems to absorb the water, and the ammonia weakens it (and helps it get washed away due to its basic, "slippery" nature).

[Reed Gray]

A wire wheel on the grinder.

robo hippy

[allen thunem]

soak it in laquer thinner

[J.D.Redwine]

You will ruin the patina.

[allen thunem]

patina off a chuck??

[robert baccus]

Patina is 2 layers of paint and 6 layers of lacquer, right?

[Brian Kent]

Yup, only for me it is 42 drips of shellac, since the 31 drips of Wood Turners Finish came off with Paint Thinner.

[Steve Schlumpf]

I agree with Reed! Works great for me and only takes a minute!

[robert baccus]

I once had a friend chastise me for spraying lacquer on my lathe. After we all died laughing for 10 minutes I informed him that was the only thing holding the old general lathe together. DNA is the proper solvent for shellac and is very dangerous misused. Actually poisonous. Keep your machines wiped down with light oil and the stuff will almost fall off.