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Thread: Spraying shellac

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Whitehorse Yukon Canada
    Posts
    40

    Spraying shellac

    Can I spray my alcohol based shellac safely with my waterbased setup? I have a Styrofoam booth made of 4x8 sheets of foam with two box fans.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
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    65,688
    With good ventilation, you can spray shellac with the same setup as you use for water borne. I do keep a second, dedicated cup for shellac. Any "flame" should be extinguished when spraying shellac as the alcohol vapor can get pretty strong and you must use a proper mask that's rated for organics. Shellac is actually the only "solvent" finish I use at this point. Everything else is water borne.
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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Kingston, ON, Canada
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    223
    I'm not sure about mixing alcohol-based finishes and the unprotected, potentially electric arcs that the motors found in these box fans may generate. Then, too, the same may be said of your lighting. Kaboom possibility?
    Marty Schlosser
    Kingston, ON, Canada
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  4. #4
    I spray shellac but I do it in the open (by my garage door) so it's well ventilated. I go one step further than Jim and have a separate HVLP gun that I use for shellac. My other gun is used for waterborne finish.

    Your fans almost certainly use induction motors so there's no arcing as there might be on a universal motor which has a commutator.

    Mike
    Last edited by Mike Henderson; 03-28-2016 at 12:33 PM.
    Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Tampa Bay, FL
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    3,895
    I built a spray booth incorporating an explosion proof fan, but that's much more involved and significantly more expensive. That being said, unless I do something amazingly dumb, I shouldn't blow myself up.

    Otherwise, those normal fans supposedly carry an explosion risk with volatile solvents like DNA from shellac, or definitely lacquer thinner. But I'll defer to Mike's knowledge of the motor types, so this risk may be overblown (excuse the pun).
    - After I ask a stranger if I can pet their dog and they say yes, I like to respond, "I'll keep that in mind" and walk off
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  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Whitehorse Yukon Canada
    Posts
    40
    They are just cheap box fans but they move alot of air. I spay when it's -10 Celcius so I've got a big 3 kw duct heater feeding the shop with warm air while they run, so it's pulling alot of air out. I'm wondering if everything goes sideways where and how big the pop would be. Really I'm wondering if Targets water based shellac is any good. I was sorta hoping to avoid grain raising and I like making shellac from flake.

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