Tgif: Three Things - Lacquer Tuesday June 26. 2018

[kmealy]

Three things about lacquer:

Pros (which is why they are often used in production furniture)

+ Fast drying, even the slow drying "brushable" lacquers dry in 30 minutes or less

+ Wide variety of sheens available from flatter than dead flat to high gloss (0 - 85+) and hard enough you can adjust sheens easily with abrasives or polishing compounds

+ Easy to repair because adding more melts into existing

 

Cons

- High odor during application

- Not quite as resistant as varnish to chemical damage - solvents and white water rings

- Can blush in high humidity application

[Michael Thuman]

Thanks Keith, some questions I have some holes in my laq and want to repair them can you suggest a method?  The laq is clear satin finish.  Will poly stick to laq after it has been applied?  Where laq fails with common solvents poly does not.  Can I top coat the laq with poly.

[kmealy]

Lacquer on top of lacquer will adhere and bond much better than poly. It will melt in and form one layer.   You might need to sand or use a card scraper to level once done, or apply another coat.  You will then need to match the sheen by polishing or even applying a light overall coat.

 

By "holes," what do you mean?  If they are just small pits, you can put in some lacquer right on top, for example with an eye-dropper or syringe.   For large areas, you can sand the top and just re-coat.   You can get Deft and Watco brushing lacquers at most of the big boxes.   What makes it "brushing" is it has a slower drying rate (30 minutes instead of 5).   The only time I've seen poly applied over a lacquer is it peeled off terribly, like 1/4 of a table top.   I did not do it, so I don't know what the prep or application technique was but it was one of my few "jobs from Hell" to get it refinished.

[Michael Thuman]

Thanks I was just looking for something that was more resistent to what eats laq.

I will try the eye dropper.  Great tips please keep them coming.