Originally posted by pmpartain
<br />I tried the spray can lacquer you can get from Craft Supplies, but suspect the humidity here is to high right now. If I spray heavy enough to get the stuff to flow out, it blushes (we called it blush at Baldwin Piano anyway) frosty milky color in the lacquer. Spray lighter, and I got a rough texture to sand away.
Mark,
There are a variety of tougher finishes - and it sounds like you would prefer to keep it simple - thus you tried lacquer. I've recently begun working with CA - and it has great possiblities if I ever become superior at it (as many others at this website have proven they are[
]).
Anway - back to your lacquer question.....
I only have aerosol cans of lacquer for touch up - but never for the initial/final coats. I learned this making batons. I either got the blush, a heavy drip, or the roughness you describe. The problem is that you don't have a high enough transfer rate from the canned lacquers. The blush you see is the propellent - you have to spray so much to get enough lacquer to work that the propellent gets into the mix. [V] The lighter approach will work if you use a very, very light pressure using a fine 3M sanding sponge (the 4.5 X 4.5 inch yellow pad available at Walmart works well for me). Use just enough pressre to knock off the roughness, and then recoat. Unfortunately, you will have to use four or 5 coats to get the job done - and boy is that time consuming.[xx(]
I recommend you invest in a 2 horsepower, 8-12 gallon air compressor, and purchase a good quality spray gun to go with it (I have a $450 gun [:0], but a $75-90 Eclipse Gun or something equivalent will work well). I've found that two coats spraying lacquer with a gun at 40 PSI, with the sponge sand between coats, gives a beautiful, glossy appearance. The pic below was taken of a checkerboard with only lacquer - and I was using a satin - not a glossy lacquer. I should have put a third coat on because there are imperfections - I rushed the job - but the results were still ok.
Lacquer holds up well if you let it harden for several days. The advantage is that you can work on it with only 30-50 minutes dry time.
Hope this helps.
Best,
Roger Garrett
