Thursday, December 10, 2015

November 10 Notes

In attendance: Jim Hiltz, Jim MacLean, Chris, Rick

Leo tip: use dividers to mark equal distances. You adjust them as necessary to achieve this. As well, it is a good idea to have an extra set with one of the legs bent inward . This makes it easier if you’re trying to divide a board in half.

Leo tip: if you’re cutting threads in wood—make your own tap by cutting a notch part way up the bolt. This helps clear the wood chips.

If shellac gets hard add methyl hydrate to it. A good mix for shellac is 3-1. If you are using a brush for shellac, you should soak it in methyl hydrate.

We brushed shellac on our bowls (inside and out) and then lightly sanded them using 400 grit. You then wipe them with a lint free painters cloth. 

Leo suggests not to use a tack cloth.When spraying a curved surface such as a bowl, use a circular motion. The spray pressure is 12lbs.

Tip:  I discovered by accident that lacquer thinner will partly dissolve and dull the finish on pens finished  with CA glue. Adding thinner into the pen makes it easier to dissemble the pen for correcting flaws.

Salad bowl finish seems to stick to shellac and vice versa

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Wonders of Shellac

Attendance: Paul, Miles, Chris, Him Hiltz, Jim MacNeil, Rick macDonald

Everyone had a piece of wood and we practiced various methods of staining.

Various approaches can be used to get a good result:


Sanding the wood  to a fine finish is important regardless of methods used.

Coat with clear dewaxed shellac
Let dry: then begin to build layers of stain
Add a WATER based vinyl stain (Clear varnish) :  use a good brush
wait several minutes
wipe off gingerly and let dry
Coat this layer with an OIL based stain, wait a few minutes and wipe off and let dry
Repeat with the WATER based stain until the color is right

(The reason for alternating is because  adding  water based stain over a water based stained layer just results in dissolving the first layer: same for the oil based layer so alternating the Oil and Water based stains gives the best result)

Finally dry overnight and coat with clear shellac by spray gun using a low pressure

Alternatively:

Coat wood with Bond or the Vinyl first
Let dry
Coat with water-based stain;- wipe off after a few  minuted and let dry
Coat with Oil based stain;  wait a few minuted and wipe off- let dry
Re-coat with the water base stain until you get the right color

Finally spray on clear shellac after an overnight dry

Leo put  a piece of wood  immersed in water for 5 days that he had shellaced and the finish remains hard and dry!

For wood with voids:

Coat with Clear shellac
Use a shellac -cabosil mix brushed on to fill in the voids
Proceed to stain as above

Hint:  Adding a little Ammonia to a water stain  makes the stain eat into the wood better when the wood is pre-treated with the vinyl  or shellac layer: Otherwise the stain does not penetrate and will wipe off completely

Leo gave all hands a bottle of  Ammonia
Paul gave all hands a supply of Acupuncture needles.
We might find a use for them in the New year projects