Lacquer Help

[Wayne Bitting]

Howdy all – time for some more lacquer finishing advise. I have a bowl with a pierced rim that I am trying out a lacquer finish on. Its my first time with lacquer and I’m using Deft spray gloss. I planned on using the Beall buffing wheels to really make it shine but I’m worried about the threads catching on the piercings and breaking them as well as all of the buffing compounds getting stuck inside. I think I’m confidant that I can buff everything other then the rim without a problem, but how do I make the rim match in shine and smoothness? I sprayed three coats on last night, how long before I can buff it?


Thanks - Wayne

[Bernie Weishapl]

Wayne I think I would have the same concern as you do about the rim. Myself I don't buff gloss lacquer. I have never seen a need to. I to would be afraid I would have a catch and break something. IMHO if is were me I don't think I would buff it.

[Harvey Mushman]

Wayne, Don't buff it! Too many unpleasant things can happen. Buffing through the lacquer is one. Catching the bowl and bouncing it off the wall is another.

There are several things that you can do. Give the lacquer a week before you do anything. It needs to cure. I'm not familiar with Deft so I don't know if it is a nitro lac or not. I use a catalyzed lacquer from ML Campbell. This stuff is very quick to cure. First, I would wet sand with mineral spirits down to 2000gr, not too wet though. Then you could use Micro Mesh to 12000 and a very fine polish..... OR.....use some polishing compounds designed for polishing lacquer on guitars. Grizzly carries these under the Menzerna name. I use these often for my guitar building projects and find them to be outstanding. They can be used either on a soft cloth and rubbed by hand or on a foam pad on a drill or a car buffer.

[Wayne Bitting]

Okay so no Beall buffing it is! Luckily I have mineral spirits and plenty of fine grit sandpapers. Now the second hardest part, the waiting - I think I might get teary eyed if I hear Tom Petty's "The Waiting....":(

[Don Robert]

You might try one of the water-based lacquers sometime. Water-based finishes have come a long way in the last few years. You are now beginning to see custom cars with WB finishes. They are much safer to use and clean up is much easier - although you should still use a respirator. Just like solvent-based lacquers, later coats of WB lacquers will "burn in" to earlier coats making these finishes easily touched up or repaired. I believe I am getting better results with WB lacquers than with Deft lacquer I once tried. There is a good source of user information on the finishing forum at TargetCoatings.com. Click on "Answers to your questions," then enter the topcoats forum.

For a high polish on WB lacquers, give them time to cure (about a day per coat) then you can wet sand to about 2000 grit. Finish with a "swirl remover" polish that can be obtained at any auto paint store for a sleek, highly polished finish. The SR I use leaves a white powder in the cracks of a piece, but this can be easily removed with an air hose.

[David Walser]

I'm not encouraging you to buff your bowl, but if you wanted to you could by using your buffer on the solid portion of the bowl and a Dremel style tool with a felt disk to buff the pierced rim. Dremel even makes felt cones that you could use to buff inside the pierced area.

Of course, you don't need to buff a lacquer finish to get a high gloss. When I worked at a furniture mill, our high gloss finish was the result of 6 - 8 coats of lacquer with wet sanding (by hand) between coats. More coats and more hand sanding will yield a "grand piano" type finish, no buffing required.

Good luck.