Who's the lacquer expert? I need advice

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jtate

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I got a pen back from a customer. :( It was lacquer finished and I don't know ehat she did to it but some of the lacquer has come off. I think she may have left it in a hot car during the summer. Either that or it cam ein contact with alcohol for a while - like a spill in her purse.

Anyhow I know someone on here knows a lot about lacquer 'cuz I've heard his stuff. But I don't remmeber who it is. Someone want to let me know who that is so I can ask an expert?

I think I'll dismantle it, remove th lacquer finish and refinish with CA but I need to know how to remove the lacquer with out hurting the segmented wood underneath it.

Julia
 
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Alcohol is used to cut (thin and desolve) lacquer. The best member with info is KenV from Juneau, AK. Ken is a forest service engineer and hates trees. [:D][:D][:D]
 
Alcohol is used to thin shellac, not lacquer. Lacquer Thinner is used to thin lacquer.

You should be able to just sand off the existing finish. Just stop when you get to bare wood and then start with the CA.
 
Without knowing what type of lacquer was originally used, you really have no choice but to gently sand off the existing finish and re-finish. As you are sanding the barrels down, watch the color on your sandpaper and or Micro-mesh. As long as it's white, you are still removing finish. Once you have a "baby's-butt smooth" surface, re-seal the barrels and finish as usual. BTW, the best source I know on this forum for information on lacquer (and other) finishes is Russ Fairfield.
 
I wouldn't call myself an expert, but, at the moment, I exclusively use lacquer for finishing pens.

There are a number of reasons why the finish would come off including those you have mentioned. Alcohol won't disolve lacquer, but it will soften it, causing it to be more easily rubbed off. Lacquer can also flake if there is any excess moisture trapped underneath the finish, as might be the case of a blank that is not completely dry. Don't discount the fact that she simply kept the pen in her purse and the constant rubbing wore off some lacquer.

As has already been mentioned, I would disassemble and sand the finish off. Then refinish with the product of your choice.

jeff
 
I would bet $10.00 that she spilled perfume on it. I made the mistake of lacquer finishing some early "perfume applicators" and my sister made a mess of the finish when she spilled some on it.

Acetone will wipe it right off, just give it a few hours or overnight to "flash off" the fumes and dry. Done like that, you should be able to refinish it just like that, but look at the wood, you may want to take it back thru a few steps of MM.

Alcohol will not touch lacquer, as mentioned above that is to cut shellac. You could use some real "lacquer thinner" but if you buy some, make sure that it's not "Paint Thinner" which would most likly be mineral spirits. You most likly have acetone, just wipe the finish off with a rag after you take the pen apart.

BTW, there has also been some who mentioned that the very fine MM grits may not allow enough "grip" to the wood when lacquer is applied. CA works, because it soaks into the wood, but lacquer will not. I do no from my auto painting experiance that if you sand the finish or primer with too fine of a sandpaper the paint can come off in sheets. This is when the primer is prepped with just 800-1000 grit paper, MM is somewhere near 3500 if I remember corectly.
 
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mannie, but I'd agree that Russ is probably more of an expert on lacquer than I. I just use it a lot.

Julia, Lee and others are correct in their assessments (from my experience) and you can try to remove it w/acetone, or put it back on the lathe and gently sand it down (it shouldn't take much). Something else that comes to mind concerning the cause is that many women's clutches (billfold for the guys) are chrome tanned leather. If leather of this type comes in contact with the lacquered pen, it will react with the lacquer ruining the finish in just a day or so. I learned this by putting several lacquer finished pens in a leather pen binder (from Woodturningz). And refinishing w/CA might not be a bad idea if she intends to keep the pen in her purse since you really have no way of knowing what happened.[;)]
 
Aargh, I replied but it's not in here!

I'm going to try a little DNA and then see if it's softened the finish enough to get it to rub off. If not I'll try acetone. I'm hesitant to try acetone as CA was used to hold the segments together.

Unfortunately, Lou, the underlying wood is holly, very white holly, so I won't be able to tell when I have enough finish sanded off since the wood dust would be the same color as the finish dust. Sigh. :(

Russ, what do you think?
 
Julia, a quick wipe of Acetone to remove the lacquer will remove the finish well before the CA can soften enough to have problems with the CA. CA takes a lot more soaking than the lacquer does. Sanding the finish off is not the way you want to go. Give the Acetone a try, it will wipe right off and then allow it to dry and you will be just fine.
 
A little bird told me that a noted woodworker from the Bahamas said he had to quit using lacquer because so many people there use insect repellents that contain DEET and it would take off the lacquer. You may to give that a try first.
 
I went with the Acetone and, indeed the finish came right off. Now a CA finish, applied between centers with no bushings in place. Let's all cross our fingers for my success on this one.
 
Good luck with the CA finish. You may be fighting a losing battle because a woman's purse can be like sealing a pen inside of a toxic waste dump if she uses it for a cosmetics case.

CA is a better choice than a lacquer, but there can still be a problem if she carries nail polish remover (acetone) in the purse. A waterborne polyurethane like Enduro has the best chance of survival because it is resistant to both the alcohols and acetone. The best choice is polished bare wood with no finish, but she probably wouldn't buy that.
 
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