Problem with finish (PIC)

[Vito Baratta]

Greetings,

I am in the process of refinishing a dresser and I am running into some issues. I am trying to achieve a glass smooth, high gloss finish. I applied some pore filler to the entire piece and sanded everything down smooth.

I have sprayed a few coats of toner made with Target Coatings USL and a dye to get the color I want. In the pic, the drawer seems to have little pits as if the finish is not level in all areas.



My question is, will this even out if I keep spraying additional coats of lacquer or should I apply something like shellac to level the surface more before I spray more coats of lacquer to fill in the surface more?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Jim Becker]

Did you put a barrier coat of say, dewaxed shellac, between the pore filler and the USL? It's looking to me that you have an adhesion problem between the USL and whatever pore filler you used. Water borne finishes will not stick to everything and based on your picture, that's likely the problem in my eyes. You may need to sand it back to fix if you want a smooth, level surface.

[Vito Baratta]

Hi Jim,

The picture makes it seem that way, however the lacquer did not have any issues sticking to the pore filled surface. What I am having issues with is the little craters of finish not being filled. However, what you are saying definitely makes sense, I will try to sand back before applying more finish, or maybe I will try to apply a heavy coat of shellac (3lb cut) to try filling in those little craters.

Thanks.

[Jim Becker]

Vito, when you get "craters" like that, the finish isn't spreading out. That's usually either caused by contamination or by adhesion issues. If you do go the shellac route to work on filling them, you must use de-waxed shellac to be compatible with a water borne finish.

[Howard Acheson]

I agree with Jim. What your pictures show is a classic case of finish incompatability. Did you discuss with Target what pore filler is compatable with their finishes?

I don't think you are going to be able to salvage your finish without stripping it and starting over. Shellac has very few solids so it does not readily "fill" depressions particularly depressions as deep as they seem in the picture.

[Vito Baratta]

The funny thing is that I had those "craters" before I had applied any pore filler to the piece. What I had done initially was sand the piece to 220 grit, apply a 1lb cut of shellac and then I had sprayed my toner and I had the craters. This is the reason why I used the pore filler, to fill in those craters.

If I lightly sand with 320 grit and then apply shellac, it should seal in the pore filler right?

If I do that, then I am assuming my lacquer will spray correctly over the shellac since it will be compatible with the shellac?

[Jim Becker]

Pore filler isn't typically designed to fill large areas like you show in your picture...

What kind of shellac did you spray? Was it de-waxed? If not, the Target product is very likely to puddle up like that due to the wax. They are not compatible.

[Vito Baratta]

I know for sure the shellac I applied is dewaxed, I have the flakes and I mixed it myself.

Jim, you bring up an interesting point. Maybe what I am trying to fill is too big for the pore filler indeed. I will try to apply some coats of shellac so that I seal in the pore filler and then try to lightly sand the shellac to level it more.

Thanks for the advice and input, it's greatly appreciated.

[Steve Schoene]

I'm seeing a form of fisheyes based on finish incompatibility or other contaminant. And, I finally noticed that you said this was a REFINISHING. The contaminant was likely silicone in furniture polish applied over the years before you touched it. That's my bet.

I think you are wasting effort trying to salvage the existing surface. Your next step should be stripping off all the finish to get back down to bare wood to start again at the beginning. Use plenty of stripper, and be as thorough as possible at rinsing off the stripper, changing the rag surface frequently so as not to smear anything around. Also note that silicone can't be removed by sanding the wood.

I'd spray on several coats of 2 lb. cut dewaxed shellac. I'd make the first coat pretty dry--you don't want the alcohol to redissolve any silicone still hidding out on the surface. Then you can spray a full shellac coat. Silicone can be a bear to seal in.

[Vito Baratta]

I don't know why I didn't use a stripper in the first place, it would have been much easier than sanding off all the finish and definitely more effective.

I have purchased a Circa brand furniture stripper, I am hoping this is a good product.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

[Vito Baratta]

I purchased the stripper and it seems to be working well, however I have another question. What should I clean the bare wood with before applying any type of finish to it? Are mineral spirits good for this task? I would like to remove any possible contamination that could be on the surface at the moment.