I have a cherry chest of drawers that is of the late 50’s vintage. I had it professionally hand stripped and it was not to be dipped. After 2 weeks of curing, I lightly sanded it and put an alkalyd based oil wiping stain by Sherwin WIlliams. After 24 hrs of drying, I starting finishing the chest with ML Campbell pre-catalized Magnamax lacquer. I am spraying with a Kremlin system with a #9 tip. It immediately started to react adversely on different part of the chest. I saw orange peel, alligatoring, and some type of blush (white speckles) particularly around the drawer fronts. I sanded it completely smooth with 150 sandpaper, vacumned it, and tacked off the surface, only to have a repeat performance when I started spraying again. It has to be a chemical reaction for my spraying conditions are ideal. I need to know how to seal up this demon before I continue on. Hope someone can help.
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Replies
Dchicone
Concerning stripping; After I get a piece back from the srtipper the first thing I do is clean it. Soap and water followed by an alcohol wash will remove most leftover contaminents. Be sure to use clean paper towels to dry behind each step.
You mentioned using a stain followed by a pre-cat lacquer. Did you seal it first?It sounds like there is a reaction between the oil stain and the acid in the lacquer. You can lock the stain down with a thin seal coat of vinyl sealer or blonde shellac.
The other problems lile orange peel and alligatoring are related to your application technique. Both are caused by too fat a coating. You can adjust this by thinning your lacquer a little and by laying a little less down on each pass.. Use the proper thinner reccomended by the manufactorer.
Are you filtering the lacquer before spraying? The white spots could be caused by the flattinig paste in the lacquer or leftover contaminents on the surface.
If it were me, I'd wash the entire piece down with lacquer thinner and remove the previous coating. Make sure you do it in sections and dry it with clean rags or paper towels as you go.
Stain it again if needed and seal it with Zinseer Seal coat which is wax free blonde shallac.
A light scuffing of the sealer and you can proceed with the finish of choice.
Check out the pamphlet put out by Sherwin- Williams
"Problem Solving Guide For Wood Finishing"
It is an excellent trouble shooting guide to many of the problems you've stated.
Good Luck,
Peter Gedrys
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