Bulls eye Spray on Shellac- any good????

Hi all,

Being an Australian recently moved to the US im unfamiliar with alot of products im seeing and was wondering if anyone has used the Bulls eye Spray on Shellac?????

http://www.amazon.com/Zinnser-Zinsser-Clear-Spray-Shellac/dp/B001GHDJ3G

I am wanting to do a quick and easy seal on my tops after binding to minimize contaminates and dings.

As we say in Australia- "is she a good product?"

Thanks,
Beau

yeah, its ok. thats what ive been using lately. as a sealer coat before lacquer.

Zinnser has it together with shellac, and the shelf life is much better than you might expect, too.

Yes. I keep spray cans of it around for quick application, cans of the liquid for brushing, or for spraying with a gun. It is good. I also mix my own flake shellac for when I really just want the best, all the way, or for when color counts. Shellac is awesome stuff.

Nice. Use it for vintage wooden bowl banjoleles. Easy on the trigger, patience on drying. Repeat often.

I've used the Zinsser Waxless Sealer in a can for a wash coat with good results.....some of their shellacs have wax in it....do not know how this might interact with subsequent finishing... have now migrated to mixing my own shellac/alcohol (waxfree)......it's cleaner (no additives).....

I have used a lot of Zinsser under lacquer. The only issues I ever had was with too much shellac as a first coat. Shellac is totally different than lacquer, though lacquer will adhere very well to shellac. The problem I ran into on a couple of occasions, was that when the shellac is too thick, and not FULLY evaporated. FULLY! the shellac eventually shrinks, and 'alligators' the lacquer, after a year or so. The lacquer slows down the process of evaporation of the shellac underneath, so you will not see this for some time. If you are using the correct amount of shellac as a sealer, letting it dry enough, and doing a proper lacquer job, shellac is an excellent sealer for lacquer, you should have no problems. Oh, the other tiny little bothersome issue with using shellac under lacquer is that lacquer does not dissolve shellac (also a reason to use shellac as a sealer for lacquer!) so if you see any white shellac sanding dust, you better remove it all before spraying lacquer, or you may see the little white bits in the lacquer finish. The smallest bits of shellac dust will 'go clear' in lacquer. Caution on the cleanup prep before spraying lacquer.

One of my favorite reasons for using shellac under lacquer is for the color of the eventual finish. Shellac under lacquer is infinitely prettier in the long run than lacquer alone, on many woods. Some light woods, and possibly some dark woods, may be exempt from this. Mahogany is ruined if finished in lacquer only, in my opinion. Koa too, and Rosewoods.

I like the idea of a thin coat of shellac on the tops to protect from fingerprints, etc, and to give a little more protection from tearout. Mixing your own is easy. Behlens is decent. Kremer Pigments in New York sells some nice shellac flakes. For an instrument, mix your own.

Thanks Chris- didn't know about lacquer not melting shellac. You probably saved me a small disaster!

shellac is awesome under lacquer... evidently, so is a penetrating epoxy grain filler coat, or 2.

I hope I did not save you a disaster...

One question I have not explored is the relationship of shellac, Smith's CPE, and lacquer.... Someone here knows about all this... I can imagine disasters with these three components if not done carefully.. I can also imagine things like sealing the top with shellac, filling the back and sides, and neck, with CPE, and then System 3 clear coat epoxy, carefully sanding all, not spilling epoxy onto the top, then lacquering all surfaces. Just thinking out loud... A nice Spruce top does not need filling, and does not need a thick finish, but a Spanish Cedar neck probably needs grain filling, and many 'back and side' woods too.. Please, anyone reading this, do your homework if you need, do not listen to me.

I read (in the LMI Cat) that a coat of Shellac between epoxy filler and the top lacquer is a safe option.

Chuck Moore put me onto Starbond CA glue for pore filling which im pretty happy with, but I do want to try epoxy as im always trying to think of areas to use up excess of a 12 gram mix of West systems (plus the 5:1 ratio sucks, even with my digital scale) so grain filling with excess would be a good use of otherwise wasted epoxy.

There seem to be 3 brands to choose from:
System 3,
Smiths All wood epoxy,
Zpoxy

Are all the same? I like the sound of Smiths 1:1 ratio though. That alone makes me want to get some when my West Systems runs out.

We use zpoxy followed by sanding sealer under lacquer