OK, I'm back to working on FINALLY completing the top of the drafting table. As several of you may remember, I put it aside after unsuccessfully trying to rub out the Waterlox finish I put on it. Witness marks everywhere, so I put it down for awhile and built a serious spray booth.

So my setup is now a spray booth with an explosion-proof fan that can accommodate the large table top. (Pretty awesome setup. I need to get it published in a magazine.)

My game plan was to spray on a couple of coats of 1.5# cut shellac as an intermediate layer, then top coat with Target Coatings EM6000. A few coats of that, time to cure, rub it out, and finally install the top.

Well, hadn't used the HVLP system in a few months (and never used it with shellac) and I got the worst case of orange peel you can imagine. I couldn't figure out how to make it go away, so I've been sanding it off (that shellac is tough stuff to sand. Never realized).

I think I'm left with a very thin coat of shellac over whatever remaining coats of Waterlox are there.

How to best proceed?

1.) Spray a barrier coat of dewaxed shellac (but this time not screw it up).
2.) Just go ahead and spray several coats of EM6000.

Any other approaches?

Was the shellac even necessary? The last coat of Waterlox was wiped on on May 6th, so it's had 10 weeks to cure.