Newbie Question about laquer finishes

[VERN MATTSON]

Wanting to learn about laquer finishes.
I have been using shellac and then wiping varnish..
Is laquer worth the effort?

Do you..can you apply by hand with good results?
Also...is there a safe, low voc, version that can be sprayed?

any help appreciated...
thanks in advance.

[kelsey hogue]

Buy a can of spray lacquer and fool around with it.. I like it as a finish coat over shellac. Great for small projects. I have sprayed lacquer using a gun, but without a good spray booth from a health and safety perspective it is a dicy proposition. I don't know of any less toxic or flammable types but with all the work done with water based finishes there may be something out there.

[Wayne Lomman]

Vern, I'll address your queries one at a time.

First, I am not a big fan of combining shellac and other finishes. Use one or the other and you get a better result.

Lacquer is worth the effort because it is less effort than shellac and wiping finishes. You can spray it and get excellent results easily. That is the consideration though - spraying for me is easy as I have a booth and no limitations on products i can use.

Lacquer is not easily applied by hand as it is very quick drying - it will set before it levels itself out. That should not stop you experimenting with application techniques to see what works.

The good news is that there are waterborne lacquers available - Valspar Zenith and Sherwin Williams Hydroplus for example. They are low VOC and not likely to blow up your workshop. In this regard they are safe. Don't be fooled into thinking water based = safe. You still need to wear a respirator when spraying and gloves when using any coating materials. Cheers

[John TenEyck]

Beyond rattle can lacquer I would not consider using it. There are brushing versions that some folks seem to be able to apply w/o streaks, but I'm not one of them. Spraying NC lacquer indoors w/o a legit spray booth is asking for an early trip to heaven - if you've been good. There are so many good waterborne finishes these days that there's no reason to work with highly volatile solvent based products. Look at General Finishes and Target Coatings WB lacquer products. They are available to Joe consumer.

John

[Mike King]

I have found much better results using HVLP spray equipment and water-borne finish. I generally seal with Target EM3000 shellac, then top with EM 6000 lacquer. That being said, there is a learning curve to using spray equipment. Even with a few runs to deal with, the quality of the finish is much better than I can do with a brush and varnish.

Mike

[Prashun Patel]

You can spray Deft Lacquer. That's formulated as a brushing lacquer, and can be thinned with lacquer thinner if you wish. It's not the most durable thing, but it does look nice.

I've used Enduro Clear Poly on a couple projects. It sprays very well and is fairly durable. More than the Deft, in my experience. That's waterbased which I really like since it makes ventilating and cleanup easy.