I had to strip a dining room table top to repair and refinish, and the finish was lacquer. The two permanent halves of the top (there are two leaves) had an extraordinary amount of finish.
After wiping for a few minutes w/lacquer thinner, which doesn’t break down the lacquer and dries too quickly I decided there had to be a better way.
So brushed on an application of Kleen Strip brush cleaner, let is soak for a couple of minutes then used a cabinet scraper to remove the lacquer. I had to re-apply in some areas but it saved me a lot of time and gallons of lacquer thinner.
Just wanted to pass this on, I have never heard of using brush cleaner for stripping before.
pins
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If lacquer thinner didn't break it down then the finish wasn't lacquer. If it had been lacquer, particularly a heavy coat of lacquer, wiping it with a rag soaked in lacquer thinner would be one of the hardest and messiest ways possible to strip it.
Typically what you want to do with lacquer is to flood the surface with lacquer thinner and let it sit for 10-15 minutes and then flood it again and let it sit for another 10-15 minutes. Then do a test scrape to see if you've penetrated down to the bottom of the lacquer. If not then repeat the previous step once or twice more. If it has penetrated then you should have a gooey mess which you would use a cabinet scraper to scrap off just as you did with the Kleen-Strip, wiping the slurry off on a rag to contain the mess and also to aid in removing it from the surface you are stripping.
Usually the last thing I'll do after stripping a surface, whether with thinner or with a stripper, is to while it's still fresh use a Scotch-Brite pad with whatever the stripping agent is and scrub the surface good going with the grain to help pull the remaining finish out of the pores. This also helps enormously to remove as stain if any is present. Then I'll wipe it down with a rag soaked in lacquer thinner and repeat until I've removed as much color as it looks like I'm going to be able to remove. This also works great when stripping solid-color paint like Latex off wood that you intend to refinish with a clear finish.
Kevin, Apparently I used the wrong word. The L/T did break down the finish but it left a gooey mess that did not stay gooey very long. What the brush cleaner did was, if this is the right word, destroyed the properties of the lacquer, much as it does when used to clean brushes. In most cases two brushed applications made the finish susceptible to 'hardening' instead of just returning to the original state. Then is was very easy to remove with a scraper. And I used less than a pint of brush cleaner to strip a table, including leaves. that was 72" x 42".pins
Sounds like the brush cleaner probably has some slower evaporating acetate in it or perhaps some ketones. If so then it would have significantly outperformed the lacquer thinner which probably didn't have any in it. Both ketones and acetates are primary solvents for nitrocellulose lacquer and would much more aggressively dissolve it than anything else would.
They don't make lacquer thinner like they used to. Mostly the stuff is worthless now days, due to EPA restrictions on solvents that can damage the ozone layer in the atmosphere. Which is partially why I don't thin lacquer with "lacquer thinner" any longer. I mix my own blend of PM Acetate and MEK.
This brush cleaner in an open can evaporate very slowly. But what it seems to do is penetrate the lacquer and changes the properties of the finish; it does not return to the 'lacquer' state, as with L/T. I don't know what's in it but when I go to the shop I'll check.pins
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