sanding sealer

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I started to make a few of these kits that you can buy, pens, perfume atomisers, keyrings, that sort of thing. The first ones I made I varnished but then wanted to try using wax to finish them so bought some sanding sealer.
The one I bought is a spirit based shellac sanding sealer that says it is good for waxes & french polishes. Directions say to apply with brush or cloth & lightly sand once dry. What they don't say is how long it takes to dry. I know from experience with paints that touch dry, recoat time & full cure time mean very different things so was wondering how long I should leave items before sanding after I have applied the sanding sealer. It feels dry quite quickly after application with it being spirit based but I don't want to start sanding things before it is fully dry/cured.

Finishing is something I still know next to nothing about & it is so important to the overall process if you want to achieve good results. The CNC is capable of producing some outstanding pieces but they will only ever look as good as the finishing allows them to, a really nice piece can be made to look bad or just ordinary with a bad finish & in the same way an ordinary or poor piece can be made to look quite special with good finishing.
My hand turning skills are also improving (very slowly) so I really need to spend a bit of time learning more about finishing, problem is that it is such a large subject :eek:
 
Telling us the brand and product will get you better answers. Zinsser's Seal Coat can be sanded in about 30 minutes where I live.
 
I've found zinsser to be a bit thick and prefer it cut at least 1:1 with good quality ethanol. Most store brand dna has a fairly high methanol/additive ratio which isn't as happy with shellac. I use mostly failed hooch from a friend or everclear, tools for working wood has some good quality and you can get 99.5% at some pharmacies for not to expensive, I've heard the Kleenstrip green is ok but haven't tried it.

With thinner shellac and some friction I can do 3-4 coats in about 15 minutes start to finish (and throw in a friction applied carnauba wax top coat from a bar in for free).

Granted I'm also shooting for basically zero post shellac sanding but sometimes have to do a little 320-400 touch up after the first coat goes on.

Of course this is for hard solid wood. Porous or punky wood is another ball of wax.
 
Sorry I didn't realise that a brand would make a big difference, I did say I didn't know very much about finishing lol, it's called Chestnut but not sure if that brand would be available on the other side of the pond.

http://www.axminster.co.uk/chestnut-shellac-sanding-sealer-ax19766

As for sanding I have been finishing these items to about 3000 grit before applying the sanding sealer & then another very light sand with the fine grit paper after the sealer has dried before using Carnauba wax on them. Will also have to look at other wax finishes but started with Carnauba because I had some that I bought as a mould (UK spelling lol) release agent for carbon fibre work that I do from time to time.
Looking at some of the pen turning videos & tutorials there seem to be a number of different types of finish that people use.
 
Wow yeah if you're going that fine before using the sealer I wouldn't sand at all after. Just friction polish it.

Take a small rag or scrap of shop towel. Something like 2"X2" +- depending on the size of the work, you don't want to have it to large cause it can get a bit grabby if you're not careful (or unlucky heh) and be sure to hold it so if it does grab it will just slip out of your fingers. Add one or two drops of oil (Walnut or blo) and apply at medium speed until it gets a bit of heat and the surface will just glow, slowly move across the piece keeping the heat up but not sitting in one place to long or it can actually burn a little.

With a thin cut and that technique I can lay on three or four coats in maybe 10-15 minutes for small pieces and I'm done. Optional quick coat with a carnauba stick wax. I've tried a bunch of waxes and like some of them better for some things but for small turning into carnauba in stick form is pretty hard to beat for ease of use, speed, and quality of finish.

I'm not sure what cut the Chestnut stuff is, I guess if try it as is, try cutting it 1:1 with good high proof ethanol, and see what you look like better. If you like it cut 1:1 try going further, once it's not putting much on then you went to far. Heh.
 
Here's a cherry knittyknotty I did recently, that has three coats of amber shellac and a quick rub of carnauba. I don't think I have more than fifteen minutes of total finishing time in the whole thing (and minimal sanding, I've been working towards no sand skew finishes for things like this with decidedly mixed results so far heh).

IMG_20170625_183358.jpg

Here's my jar of amber, the jar is clear normally, I shook it up and immediately took a picture, so what you see is just what's sheeting off.
IMG_20170625_183515_1.jpg
 
For the small turning projects I like using the Damar varnish I make from the rock crystals. Drys super fast. But for the finishing I put about 40% bees wax in to the damar and which allows me to do a hand rub while spinning.
 
I figured the painter would have some tricks up his sleeve :thumb: I learned more about linseed oil polymerization from reading one good article on historical painting techniques than basically all other sources.

Thanks Dave, will have to give that a try. I really like the "almost instant finish" technique I'm getting with shellac but its a bit fussy for some things that I could see Damar working better for.
 
Thanks, is there somewhere I can get more info on this sort of thing, being completely new to all this it's difficult to know where to start lol
 
You got to figure Damar and bees wax is one of the oldest formulas known. Its been used in oil painting for hundreds of years.
I've been using a single coat of 60/40 Damar/BW for my calls and strikers. It's like 10 coats of shellac in appearance.
 
Thanks, is there somewhere I can get more info on this sort of thing, being completely new to all this it's difficult to know where to start lol

Order a 1 pound bag of Damar crystals and a pound of Bees wax. Get a quart mason jar. You can google , making damar varnish. You'll heat the liquid varnish in a double cook pot or crockpot and add beeswax 30/40%.
 
Thanks Dave, will look into that, quick question though having done a quick google search. Is there a difference between Damar Crystals & gum damar resin?
 
That's good to know thanks Dave, some places I looked at had prices for Damar Crystals & some for Damar resin gum. The prices seemed to be cheaper for the resin gum so I wasn't sure if it was the same thing lol
Will get the damar & beeswax ordered when my pension goes in unless someone pays me to do a job, been a bit quite just lately, not sure why but hopefully things will pick up again soon.
 
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