How to Make and Use Your Own Shellac Wood Finish
Okay, well we're gonna start mixing up some shellac and as promised we're going to do two different recipes
First recipe will be mixing shellac from dry flakes and the second recipe
Will take a pre-mixed batch of shellac and make a lighter cut or a more dilute shellac
Before we start I just wanted to go over the tools and supplies that you see on the workbench
For making shellac from
flakes a scale is an important item to have you can use any scale, that's
capable of weighing in the ounce range this can be a postal scale
This is a scale that I use for my son's Pinewood Derby and Cub Scouts. I've seen scales just like this in garage
sales
This is something I bought at a garage sale
And this is a small coffee grinder a coffee grinder or a spice mill is perfect for
pulverizing dry Schleck
making a fine powder which dissolves much quicker in the solvent
It's also good to have
several small
Plastic bottles that will be about the right size for you to store a batch of shellac
Don't forget that after you mix your Schleck write down on a label
What type of shellac it is and the date it was mixed remembering that it has about a six-month shelf life
Another important little item is something to weigh you're slacking when you're using your scale
This is basically a small to-go container that I cleaned and kept it for mixing shellac and you put it on your scale
Zero out the scale, and then you can mix it you can weigh your Schleck in there and pour it into your container
Anybody that's taken high school or college chemistry will certainly remember weighing papers and basically I'm using a
Six inch square piece of paper you put that on your scale you can also use that to weigh out your DRI shellacque
It's good to have it folded in half and then you can use that as a funnel or a slide to pour the shellac into
your bottle
so either a small to-go container or
This is just printer paper six inch square weighing papers
It's always good to have shop towels. This is no exception when making shellac you'll have some little spills to pick up
We're using denatured alcohol as our solvent I
Like having gloves when I'm doing shellac it's totally non-toxic, but that just keeps it off my hands and makes it easier to clean up
It's also good. Just to have a couple of mixing containers just to
Keep clean solvent in and also
This is where I put my syringes
Now you might say why have a container for syringes well
I use these two large volume syringes, which you can get at a veterinary supply
or a feed store for drawing up a given volume of shellac and
When I'm using this recipe in Category to where it says
Two parts of alcohol to one part of shellac I use
Say perhaps sixty. I pull that up once for the
Shellac and then I'll pull up two of the same in
Alcohol and that way, I don't have to measure
In containers and pour and then I've got a bunch of things to clean up and I also don't get slack on the edge
The can I don't have to clean it up just open and close
These are very easy to clean. I've been using them for a long time you just when you're all done
Just take some clean alcohol run them back and forth like that in the container and then take them apart
Take a small screwdriver
Just pop the rubber seal off the end
Like wipe these down with alcohol and a paper towel and just lay them on the bench to dry put it back together
And I'm ready to go for the next time
I want to make some shellac so this is a good little tip and
You can buy a handful of these for a couple of dollars at a feed store or a veterinary supply
I've got a bag of shellac that I've already cut the top off of and we're going to take our scale
I'll turn it on
and
Then I'm going to take my little weighing cup this way. I don't have to put slack on the scale itself
I'll put that on the scale and just zero it out and
Just start weighing out the slack until I get to two ounces
There's one ounce
See how close they are to their packaging, and it doesn't have to be that exact
It's just kind of nice to know what you're what you've got when you mix it up
All right well as advertised we're at two ounces exactly
Actual AK and put it in this coffee grinder. It's always good to have electricity on your bench
And we'll just quickly pulverize this shellac
Okay, so I've got everything cleaned up, and we're ready to mix the alcohol and shellac in this container. I have some alcohol
This is the container we're going to mix the shellac in this is our pulverized shellac exactly two ounces
we're gonna make a
One-pound cut and using this recipe that means 2 ounces of dry shellac flakes
mixed in 16 ounces of denatured alcohol
using this syringe on the left-hand side is
marked and ounces and basically 2 ounces up to the top, and you'll just see this just makes it easy you just
Unless spilling and that kind of thing so there's 2 4
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