gotta vent about my shellac disaster

Kivitel

Kivitel

New member
Okay. Telecaster. Custom. I made it. Maple thru neck. Chambered ash wings. Totally badass. Covered in perfectly tripped canvas, airbrushed to perfect speckly, ambery textury perfection. I put paint on the canvas and then polished it by hand, leaving alternating dark / light and shiny diagonal lines. Looks gorgeous. Finally done. Just need a clear coat.

I have 2 types of lacquer - nitro and ordinary hardware store. Oils. Waxes. Urethane. Polyurethane. Acrylic finishes of all sorts, all at my disposal.

I reach for the shellac.

Shellac is awesome. Shellac, on certain things, is a durable, gorgeous finish. Easy to repair. Easy to apply. Clean up with alcohol or acetone.

I assumed the place I work buys shellac pretty often, say, once every 2 years or so. Wrong. The **** won't dry. It's supposed to be dry in 2-4 hours tops. Should be dry to the touch in half an hour. Won't dry. Tacky. Looks like ****, not clear at all (the can said clear).





TURNS OUT THE SHELLAC WAS FROM 2001. I JUST SPENT ABOUT AN HOUR IN A SPRAY BOOTH DOUSING BY BABY IN ACETONE AND SCRAPING OFF THE GUNKY HORRIBLE BUG **** ALONG WITH ALL MY BEAUTIFUL LAYERS OF PAINT. I DON'T THINK THIS THING IS GOING TO GET PERFECTLY CLEAN. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS CHECK THE DATE ON PREMIXED SHELLAC. I AM CURRENTLY EXPLORING OTHER WAYS TO FINISH THIS INSTRUMENT. BUT BEFORE I DO THAT I HAVE TO KILL THE FIRST PERSON I SEE WITH MY BARE HANDS.


I am probably going to sand down to bare wood, prime, fill, and do off white nitro or something. But right now I need to destroy a human life.
 
Re: gotta vent about my shellac disaster

Dude! That's sick. Bummer. I have a ton of old paint. I keep it all...wierd. But if I'm gonna shoot something, I make sure it's still good if in doubt. Now clear should be clear. I had 12 year old cans of very pricey House of Kolor kandy and 2 quarts of clear and sealer. The clear was not clear...gone. The sealer looked too thick...gone. The kandy looked good...test spray on an old bike frame before shooting my restored moped...good. Sorry to hear of your paint issue, but it's not the end of the world and you have learned an important lesson, like when I mixed according to directions on very expensive polyester and it jelled/hardened in my pot, line and gun...they did'nt know it's hot in Hawaii and forgot to tell us to really cut back on the catalyst. Sometimes we have to learn the hard way, but in the end, we become experienced painters. Good luck.
 
Re: gotta vent about my shellac disaster

I have used some very old shellac, and i have never had any problems. I do remember i had to cut it with more alcohol though. I always get it to a consistancy of that of milk.

oh yeah, i have never found shellac that was perfectly clear. I don't know what they do to it but it has never been as clear as poly or nitro.

good luck with the clean up and refinishing.
 
Re: gotta vent about my shellac disaster

Guess you could say you took a real shellacing?:chairfall

Seriously, good luck and try not to be to down about it. Now you have a new canvas to create on.
 
Re: gotta vent about my shellac disaster

Ahhhhhhhh
I've calmed down now. Thanks everybody.

I'm going to strip it down. Touch up the woodworking as needed, prime, seal. Off white paint, nitro clear coat.

I was hoping to finish it really soon. At least all the critical woodworking is done (exact position of bridge screws, ferrules, jack plate).
 
Re: gotta vent about my shellac disaster

I hope all goes well. Finishing guitars is something I haven't the balls for, since I had a mahogany body bubble-up under a primer shoot. The wood was warming in the sun as I was shooting the primer, bubbling the primer all over.
 
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