lacquer spraying question.

Got me a new compressor and gun, so I thought I would give it a try. Not a lot of experience in spraying lacquer. The other day I mixed about 50/50 lacquer and thinner. Came out and dried almost instantly, much of it turned flaky white. Today knowing there is a little oil in varish I mixed in about 10% varnish with the lacquer and thinner. Sprayed on pretty good, but got that golf ball, orange peel effect. Do I add more thinner or lacquer, have not been able to locate any tung oil or turpentine. Jerry
 
Especially the new lacquers don't need much thinning. Earlier, to meet the VOC standards the manufacturers would make the lacquer without enough thinner (because more thinner added to the VOC). On the can, they'd tell you not to thin (because then they'd exceed the VOC), but the rep would wink at you and tell you to thin it a bit for better flow out.

If you're using one of the modern formulated lacquers try spraying it full strength on some scrap and see how it flows out. Thinning doesn't make the lacquer go any further because it all evaporates.

Mike
 
Oil and Lacquer don't mix so That is why you got the orangepeel. Never mix Lacquer and Varnish they are like oil and water or like wives and mistresses :eek:

As for the flakey white is more likely from too much air than too thin a mixture. Over thinned will result in a dull finsh but too much air will cause a heavy overspray and flakey drying. Moisture in your air (did you bleed your tank?) will cause the white or clouding. spring humid weather is nasty for clouding.

I have sprayed a bunch in the past but not much of late but the rules are the same, even with modern finishes. Learn the chemistry of what finishes and thinners will mix and use as little air as necessary for a better application.

If I remember correctly I used to mix 100% Lacquer to thinner (or 50/50) some would go to 150% thinner. But I would start with 15 psi air and adjust to get the application you can feel comfortable applying. Always bleed the tank before starting a finish project.
 
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Jay,Mike & Bill, I appreciate your replys. Been trying to follow some of your advice. Pics are of the compressor, lacquers and varnishes I have. I have two types of thinner, one is bulk and seems to work best, the other is "Doal" brand and seems to dry fast and has a strong odor. Two lacquers also, one bulk with a chemical odor, and the "Prisa" brand (odor not real bad, seems more natural smell). The Lacquer, Varnish will not go thru the gun without some thinner, (the varnish is thinner and I only had to add a little thinner). Maybe I have the wrong type of gun. I only seem to have success with varnish and a little thinner, but I would prefer to use Lacquer. Having multiple coats of different mixes and lacquer and varnish on the furniture, it hard to tell where I'm going wrong now, need to start over on some fresh wood. But reducing the air, draining the tank, using less thinner, things are starting to look better. I've learned a lot about spraying in the last week.
 
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Gerald,

Looks like you have a decent compressor, and the spray gun should work OK for lacquer. But I don't see any moisture separator/filter on your air line. That is an important item necessary in any spray painting operation. Draining the tank is needed and helps a lot but moisture still condenses as the air cools in the hose line unless you remove as much as possible before it reaches the gun. You can even attach a small moisture trap to the gun itself too.

Another bit of advice would be to use a slower evaporating thinner (sometimes referred to as HOT thinner) to help control the "blushing" of the finish, which happens both because of moisture in the atmosphere you are working in and moisture in your air supply and the finish trying to dry too quickly, trapping some moisture under the skin of the coat. When I used to spray nitrocellulose lacquers on cars, blushing was a big problem, especially in darker colors. If it wasn't too bad, I could sometimes correct most of it by spraying a fairly light coat of a real thinned mixture (maybe 75%thinner) over the surface after it had flashed off, usually in a half hour or so. It worked, sometimes, and sometimes it was just a matter of waiting for full dry and re-spraying with the slower thinned finish. Your milage may vary but I would try an area that way to see.

Orange peel finish usually comes from too thick material being sprayed at too high a pressure and spraying too fast.

Hope this helps.

Aloha, Tony
 
Gerald
The gun you have will work just fine. Lacquers are the easiest to spray but you might need some retarder to slow it down, don't thin to much as you can always add more. If you add to much you will get as grainy feel to the finish almost like sand paper thats when you need to slow the drying down with retarder and or less thiner your bulk thinner should work fine. Not sure if you have a Sherwin-Williams down there but if you do they can help a LOT.

Also Tony has some good advice.

You also need a air moisture separator of some kind and the air hose you have now is contaminated and will need replaced I always keep one hose to use just for spraying because oil form the compressor gets into the line and will cause all kinds of problems.

Hope this helps keep at it and it will all come together for you. :thumb:

Jay
 
I got tired of answering the same questions, so built a series of web pages that you may find helpful...

General intro to my style finishing... www.solowoodworker.com/wood/finish.html

Rubbing out/sheen... you didn't ask yet but probably will ... www.solowoodworker.com/wood/sheen.html

Traditional and acrylic lacquer including thinning ... www.solowoodworker.com/wood/lacquer.html

And finally a page on spraying techniques... www.solowoodworker.com/wood/spraying.html
Very cool, and thanks Charlie. :wave:
 
Charlie,

Thanks for writing that up and posting. Very useful discussion of finishing options. Based on your text, I just ordered 32 ounces of the USL to test. Have you ever tried it on non-furniture things, like, say, wiping it on for turning projects? ;)

Thanks,

Bill
(ps. you may want to check your target link... it 404'd for me...)
 
Charlie,
... Based on your text, I just ordered 32 ounces of the USL to test. Have you ever tried it on non-furniture things, like, say, wiping it on for turning projects? ...

I have tried it on the lathe. Regular NC lacquer dries and polishes as it warms while you apply it spinning, but the Target lacquer needs the chemical reaction time, not just the evaporation of the solvent. Bottom line, this is where I am trying to use up my left-over nitrocellulose lacquer. I bet Target would work fine if applied normally and left to cure for a few minutes, but that isn't the way I like to finish my spinny things.

I have a friend who also uses USL, and swears it is a good brushing lacquer as well. I have not tried brushing it.

... (ps. you may want to check your target link... it 404'd for me...)

THANK YOU! From usage stats I know I am getting too many 404s, but I haven't been able to find them. That particular link was copied from the browser when I bought things, so it worked on my machine, but obviously wouldn't work if you hadn't gone through the purchase sequence.
 
I thank everyone for their input on spraying lacquer. Charlie, I actually stumbled onto your website before this thread, very good information in it. Jay, Tony, Bill all have excellent input. After attempting spraying I think you have to dive in and try things for yourself. I've made mucho mistakes, but learned a whole lot. One problem now is the rainy season with the humidity extremely high right now, spraying lacquer may have to wait awhile. I looked at filters for the air line one sold for $50 the other for $10, I bought the ten dollar one, it works great lots of water in it, also have to drain the tank about every third or fourth time it turns on and comes back up to pressure, with much water coming out of the tank, so the humidity is a major problem. Acquired some new finishes, the one Poly Form "Resinas Serie 1100" with "catalizador 250" works really great with a gloss finish. Even after a week it does not seem to soak into the wood. (myself I prefer a satin finish, but people seem to like gloss). The directions said to add the catalizador to the resin, which I did, sprayed beautiful, no flake, no orange peel, but rather expensive, I litre cost about $25, which would be about $100 a gallon(but I only had to spray on one coat). I also found some Poly Form Laca nitrocelulosa for about $24 for the whole gallon, haven't used it yet. I enclosed some pics, the finish is getting exceptable to me for being made out of pine, and the 1/4" ply only cost about $12 a sheet.

http://gschacht.bootlogic.com
 
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