Friday – Shooting Lacquer

What a beautiful day for shooting lacquer. It was pretty chilly this morning, so I went back to milling out walnut billets for bag handles, but after lunch – once the sun came over the mountain – it was warming up nicely. A clear blue sky, just a bit of a breeze, and 60°. Perfect!

So, I put away all the tools and vacuumed the shop thoroughly to get rid of the sawdust and wood chips. Then vacuumed Carols tables, tack ragged them and set up the HVLP sprayer.

It takes about 30 minutes to shoot one coat on all 5 pieces, then I have to let the finish harden up for 45 minutes to an hour, scuff sand and shoot another coat. Three coats usually does it. When that’s dry I apply a skim-coat (very thin layer) of tung-oil polyurethane to just the tops of the tray panels. This helps protect the finish from spills and sweaty glasses that would leave white rings in the lacquer.

The poly needs to catalyze for at eight hours, then they’ll be ready to package and ship out. I may get that done tomorrow – though we don’t usually work on Saturday -- I’m a little behind schedule because of extracurricular activities, I need to make up that time.


Doug-Bob