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I've been reading a lot about finishing, trying to decide which method to use. I have a decent compressor, but no sprayer and no booth. So I've been looking into brush on, wipe on methods. I liked Tony C's wipe on lawyer method but I really don't want to stink up my house or piss off my neighbors in the adjoining townhouses.

So I came across this alternative to French polishing. Here's the video link

http://youtu.be/Pk8wmr-Np4s

Here's the explanation. Basically it's the same process as Tony C only with Shellac instead of lacquer.

http://www.stansellguitars.com/construction-techniques/shellac-finish

Anyone have any thoughts, criticism or other I put on using this method? It seems pretty simple.

Nothing new. It's just spirit varnishing. Usually done with a very thin cut ( 1 Lb) and many, many coats - 15 +.
It has the advantage of being very low tech and very quick in term of time spent actually finishing. You simply can't brush out like you would do with a much slower drying oil varnish. It does take practice to get good at it and you must resist the temptation to go over any areas that you miss. You have to avoid the large overlaps. Those are difficult to recover from. Adding any colour coats increases the difficulty by a few factors.
The disadvantage over French Polishing is that it's more difficult to ensure an equivalent thin finish and brushing doesn't fill in pin holes, open pores etc. anywhere near as fast. Your initial surface has to be very good.
Scott Hershey has done a DVD on Spirit Varnish for Violins, although his recipes are probably on the soft side. I just use Shellac with a touch of spike Oil and turpentine. The only Shellac I use is either Button lac or seedlac, wax left in.

I've got dewaxed flake shellac that I'm going to use. What's the reasoning behind wax/no-wax?

I would get some Behlen Qualasole Padding Finish (It is very close to shellac.) and just pad it on. That is use a rag to wipe it on. Let it dry (not very long) wipe some more on. Repeat until you are happy. I used it for a top a few years ago and it still looks great. It is not quite a FP look but very close.

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Shellac brushes on just fine, but you won't get nearly as thin and even a finish as is possible with french polish technique. One quick and dirty method I've used on furniture is to brush on 4 or 5 coats (3# cut), level with 400 wet, rub it out with 0000 steel wool dipped in paste wax. It can be further rubbed out just like lacquer if you want gloss.

I strongly prefer waxed shellac for brushing. Dewaxed will work, but it's much harder to level. Dewaxed is necessary if you're using the shellac as a sealer, so that other things can stick to it.

Why not try french polishing? It's not as hard or complex as all that.

Qualasole is pretty stinky stuff and gives me a headache. It's more like padding lacquer. Best to just wipe it on without thinking about it too much.

Well originally I was going to do a french polish but I am in a hurry to finish this thing because I currently do not have a guitar to play and it's driving me insane. I don't have anyone to show me how to French Polish and my understanding is that there is a pretty good learning curve to getting a good result and it is very, very time consuming.

For a super speedy shellac finish, wipe on a coat to seal and raise the grain, lightly scrape/sand it down, wipe another couple coats, and let it sit for a day. Wipe on another coat or two, then take a piece of muslin or similar cloth and fold it a few times to make a small and firm pad, put a couple drops of alcohol on it, and rub small and fast circles to burnish the surface smooth. If it slides totally smoothly, you need more alcohol. But you don't want it to drag and leave marks either. Just a slight bit of friction to flatten the surface. Doesn't get super glossy, but is shinier than satin finishes. Wood grain texture is still clearly visible, which I like.

Maple was a wise choice for back and sides on your guitar, to avoid pore filling

Oh, and for the neck, sand to 320, wipe on a coat of shellac, sand again, this time up to 600, wipe on another coat, and call it done. Minutes, rather than hours for pumice filling and FP, and feels better anyway. Not scritchy like satin, and not grippy like gloss. At least if you use a closed pore wood, or have a straight grained neck with near-zero runout along the back so the pores are nice and long rather than being annoying little sharp-edged pinholes all over.

Hey Dennis, thanks. That's pretty much what I plan to do, but probably 10-15 coats of Shellac or so. That way it should remain thick enough to buff out.

The neck will be done in tru oil and finished matte. I really prefer the feel of that. The headstock, back of the headstock, Backs and sides will be done with ~10-15 coats of shellac flattening between every 3-4 coats with 220-400 until working up to the 1000 & 2000 on the final coats. I may try to french polish the top only. Worst comes to worst I can sand it off and shellac it like the sides.

In the video, is he doing the final sanding dry? Does that cause problems with the paper clogging up?

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http://www.oleninstruments.com

"Those who tilt at windmills are only considered insane by those who can't see the dragon."

The thing that I didn't like about the video was that there was very little information. This step by step detailing his process is from the second link, but I'll take a lot of the fluff out.

1. Begin by using the hand scraper and chisel where appropriate and then sanding the entire guitar smooth with 220 grit sandpaper.

2. Rub the guitar with Naphtha and check closely for gaps, glue residue, dents, etc. Make repairs as necessary.

3. Brush on a heavy (“Flood”) coat of shellac. This is the “foundation” for the finish. This is not one coat but many coats. What you are doing is basically saturating the wood until it cannot accept any more shellac. In Les’s own words, he is literally pouring the shellac on very quickly until it begins to pool. He will give the instrument a little time between coats to allow the shellac to penetrate into the pores and be absorbed until the wood can accept no more. This could be 5 or 6 coats. At some point the brush will just be pushing the shellac around and begin to remove shellac instead of laying down more. You should be able to see and feel this happening.

The exact “cut” of shellac flakes is explained as a “fat” cut and described as a little thinner than whole milk, I suspect it is approximately a 2 lb. cut.

4. Removing the initial flood coats

After the flood coats are applied, the instrument is scraped, sanded and chiseled, ALL the way back to the wood with 220 sandpaper (finer grit size paper does not allow for needed traction). So why do it? Well, as we know the difference between “porous” wood and “non-porous” wood is the size of the pores because all wood in porous. We just don’t need special pore filling substance for certain woods. However, the flood coat will penetrate the wood through the small pore openings or any unfilled pores after the pore filling process. So I suppose you do not have to go all the way back on say Rosewood if you know you have 100% coverage with your pore filler.

By the way, on these heavy flood coats, watch shellac running down the side from the top or back because not all of us are as neat as Mr. Stansell. You’ll have a lot of extra sanding if you forget to check and wipe off the excess before it dries. Also, you cannot scrape the top because the wood is too soft. The top must be sanded.

5. Subsequent heavy coats
Next, you begin the heavy coating process again on the top, back, sides, neck and headplate. These coats (maybe 3 or 4) are added 2 days apart. Again, you are saturating the wood. Being a bit more careful with these coats this time will save some sanding time. Plus, this time you are going to level and not entirely remove these layers of the shellac finish. In order to do the sides, the guitar can be put into a vise with soft jaws so as not to flatten the fretwires as you see in the video. These coats are again put on quickly with a brush or other suitable pad.

6. When dry, a scraper is used on the sides, back, neck and head to level the heavy coats of shellac.

7. The guitar is then sanded with 220 sandpaper backed with a sanding pad. All Les’s sanding is done with the foam pad from the micromesh set. It is sanded quite well but not all the way back to the wood. As stated above, this is a more serious leveling procedure. In this procedure the top, neck and headplate are also sanded with 220 paper. Close up of the headplate from the video shows shellac clearly remains but the finish has been thoroughly leveled. The guitar is then wiped off with a clean cloth.

8. Base finishing coats

The guitar is allowed to rest for 2 days while the shellac is allowed to dry and harden. Mr. Stansell next puts on nitrile gloves and applies a new coat with a pad. He uses straight strokes only and recharges often but he takes more pains to get a more even coat this time through. This step is to the top, back, sides, neck and headplate. The shellac remains thick. He holds the guitar to do the sides rather than using the vice. Some overlapping has to take place in this step. You will see no gaps in the coverage. At this point, the bridge has not been glued on so he will have to later position the bridge and remove the shellac underneath. In addition, he has taped off the neck to cover the sides and does the reverse to do the neck area around the heel. Remember, very little work is required in this area because it was completely finished prior to assembly so this is only touch up work.

There is a little more to this process than any video could show. Every other day, Les adds 2 or 3 coats one half hour apart. One the idle days, he sands or levels the previous days coats. So, the bottom line is 15 to 20 coats are added followed by a leveling procedure again using 220 sandpaper.

9. Rest time

Then the Guitar is set aside in an environmentally controlled room for 2 weeks (longer if you are not in a rush) to allow the shellac to rest and harden. The longer you rest it before you complete the polish step the harder the shellac will get and the better your initial finish will be.

10. Bridge Area

When you are ready to begin the micro-mesh and polishing process, begin with the top around where the bridge will ultimately go. Start with the 1,500 and go all the way through 12,000 including the Novus polish. Then locate the bridge position, mask it off and glue it in place. Les uses two guide pins drilled into the top through the saddle area. If you place the bridge on before you do this sanding and polish step, you will never get this area cleanly polished. The next picture in the video shows the top with the bridge glued on and the top looks like the shellac looks finished. Les’s professionalism is beginning to appear. See point 5:39 in the video. Also, it does not appear that there was any glue residue around the bridge area so he’s super neat or he has a way of getting that off without ruining the shellac finish. Actually, Les told me you must have “squeeze-out” or you do not have enough glue for the bridge. The masking tape will take most of this “squeeze-out.” He uses a chisel for the remaining “squeeze-out” and a brush lightly dampened with water for any final residue.

Micro-mesh sanding process for the remainder of the instrument

He then again begins the other parts of the instrument with 1,500 grit and goes all the way through 12,000 grit sanding lightly with each grit. As he goes higher in the grit process, he is polishing the guitar by removing larger scratches and introducing smaller scratches until with the 12,000 grit the scratches left cannot be seen by the naked eye. The video shows this process only on the top but he performs the same procedure on the back and sides.

10. Final Polishing

Finally, the guitar is polished by hand with Novus #2 fine water based scratch removing polish. He made it clear this is not a wax. It is a mild abrasive that lessens the scratches left from the 12,000 grit. And because the Novus abrasive is in a slurry, it gives a more even disbursement of the abrasive particles. The video does not show that a great deal of polishing is necessary. The polish says to keep rubbing in a circular fashion until the polish is dry. You should plan on a little more polishing time than the impression given by the video. Also, I would not expect to see Stansell-like results the first time. My first attempt at this left something to be desired. For now obvious reasons, no matter how hard I worked, I could not get the areas around the bridge and near the fretboard to look as neat as other areas. Next time I’ll be better informed and prepared.

Another important point Les wanted me to add was that this finish will craze in a few months. It will show up as haze but when you look at it with your close up visor, you will see tiny cracks occurring in the finish. He also told me that every French polished guitar he had examined has also had this problem. However, with this finish, you start with the 1800 micromesh and go through the 12,000 again and then re-polish with the Novus and the finish will be permanent and will not craze again. Les does not suggest your customer start taking the micromesh sandpaper to their instruments unless they have wood working experience. Often, he will give some of the Novus polish to his customer so they can maintain an acceptable finish using only the polish. While at first this looks like a drawback, my experience has been that even nitrocellulose lacquered guitars craze. But with Les’s method, the finish does not have to be reapplied. In fact, Les told me that no shellac is added on this refinishing process. If you do, it will melt all the shellac layers below and create other problems.

As you can see, this is not a short and sweet finishing process. That’s not what Les was looking for. It is a different way of getting an attractive finish that would offer some protection for the instrument and not adversely affect the sound.

The thing that I didn't like about the video was that there was very little information. This step by step detailing his process is from the second link, but I'll take a lot of the fluff out.

1. Begin by using the hand scraper and chisel where appropriate and then sanding the entire guitar smooth with 220 grit sandpaper.

2. Rub the guitar with Naphtha and check closely for gaps, glue residue, dents, etc. Make repairs as necessary.

3. Brush on a heavy (“Flood”) coat of shellac. This is the “foundation” for the finish. This is not one coat but many coats. What you are doing is basically saturating the wood until it cannot accept any more shellac. In Les’s own words, he is literally pouring the shellac on very quickly until it begins to pool. He will give the instrument a little time between coats to allow the shellac to penetrate into the pores and be absorbed until the wood can accept no more. This could be 5 or 6 coats. At some point the brush will just be pushing the shellac around and begin to remove shellac instead of laying down more. You should be able to see and feel this happening.

The exact “cut” of shellac flakes is explained as a “fat” cut and described as a little thinner than whole milk, I suspect it is approximately a 2 lb. cut.

4. Removing the initial flood coats

After the flood coats are applied, the instrument is scraped, sanded and chiseled, ALL the way back to the wood with 220 sandpaper (finer grit size paper does not allow for needed traction). So why do it? Well, as we know the difference between “porous” wood and “non-porous” wood is the size of the pores because all wood in porous. We just don’t need special pore filling substance for certain woods. However, the flood coat will penetrate the wood through the small pore openings or any unfilled pores after the pore filling process. So I suppose you do not have to go all the way back on say Rosewood if you know you have 100% coverage with your pore filler.

By the way, on these heavy flood coats, watch shellac running down the side from the top or back because not all of us are as neat as Mr. Stansell. You’ll have a lot of extra sanding if you forget to check and wipe off the excess before it dries. Also, you cannot scrape the top because the wood is too soft. The top must be sanded.

5. Subsequent heavy coats
Next, you begin the heavy coating process again on the top, back, sides, neck and headplate. These coats (maybe 3 or 4) are added 2 days apart. Again, you are saturating the wood. Being a bit more careful with these coats this time will save some sanding time. Plus, this time you are going to level and not entirely remove these layers of the shellac finish. In order to do the sides, the guitar can be put into a vise with soft jaws so as not to flatten the fretwires as you see in the video. These coats are again put on quickly with a brush or other suitable pad.

6. When dry, a scraper is used on the sides, back, neck and head to level the heavy coats of shellac.

7. The guitar is then sanded with 220 sandpaper backed with a sanding pad. All Les’s sanding is done with the foam pad from the micromesh set. It is sanded quite well but not all the way back to the wood. As stated above, this is a more serious leveling procedure. In this procedure the top, neck and headplate are also sanded with 220 paper. Close up of the headplate from the video shows shellac clearly remains but the finish has been thoroughly leveled. The guitar is then wiped off with a clean cloth.

8. Base finishing coats

The guitar is allowed to rest for 2 days while the shellac is allowed to dry and harden. Mr. Stansell next puts on nitrile gloves and applies a new coat with a pad. He uses straight strokes only and recharges often but he takes more pains to get a more even coat this time through. This step is to the top, back, sides, neck and headplate. The shellac remains thick. He holds the guitar to do the sides rather than using the vice. Some overlapping has to take place in this step. You will see no gaps in the coverage. At this point, the bridge has not been glued on so he will have to later position the bridge and remove the shellac underneath. In addition, he has taped off the neck to cover the sides and does the reverse to do the neck area around the heel. Remember, very little work is required in this area because it was completely finished prior to assembly so this is only touch up work.

There is a little more to this process than any video could show. Every other day, Les adds 2 or 3 coats one half hour apart. One the idle days, he sands or levels the previous days coats. So, the bottom line is 15 to 20 coats are added followed by a leveling procedure again using 220 sandpaper.

9. Rest time

Then the Guitar is set aside in an environmentally controlled room for 2 weeks (longer if you are not in a rush) to allow the shellac to rest and harden. The longer you rest it before you complete the polish step the harder the shellac will get and the better your initial finish will be.

10. Bridge Area

When you are ready to begin the micro-mesh and polishing process, begin with the top around where the bridge will ultimately go. Start with the 1,500 and go all the way through 12,000 including the Novus polish. Then locate the bridge position, mask it off and glue it in place. Les uses two guide pins drilled into the top through the saddle area. If you place the bridge on before you do this sanding and polish step, you will never get this area cleanly polished. The next picture in the video shows the top with the bridge glued on and the top looks like the shellac looks finished. Les’s professionalism is beginning to appear. See point 5:39 in the video. Also, it does not appear that there was any glue residue around the bridge area so he’s super neat or he has a way of getting that off without ruining the shellac finish. Actually, Les told me you must have “squeeze-out” or you do not have enough glue for the bridge. The masking tape will take most of this “squeeze-out.” He uses a chisel for the remaining “squeeze-out” and a brush lightly dampened with water for any final residue.

Micro-mesh sanding process for the remainder of the instrument

He then again begins the other parts of the instrument with 1,500 grit and goes all the way through 12,000 grit sanding lightly with each grit. As he goes higher in the grit process, he is polishing the guitar by removing larger scratches and introducing smaller scratches until with the 12,000 grit the scratches left cannot be seen by the naked eye. The video shows this process only on the top but he performs the same procedure on the back and sides.

10. Final Polishing

Finally, the guitar is polished by hand with Novus #2 fine water based scratch removing polish. He made it clear this is not a wax. It is a mild abrasive that lessens the scratches left from the 12,000 grit. And because the Novus abrasive is in a slurry, it gives a more even disbursement of the abrasive particles. The video does not show that a great deal of polishing is necessary. The polish says to keep rubbing in a circular fashion until the polish is dry. You should plan on a little more polishing time than the impression given by the video. Also, I would not expect to see Stansell-like results the first time. My first attempt at this left something to be desired. For now obvious reasons, no matter how hard I worked, I could not get the areas around the bridge and near the fretboard to look as neat as other areas. Next time I’ll be better informed and prepared.

Another important point Les wanted me to add was that this finish will craze in a few months. It will show up as haze but when you look at it with your close up visor, you will see tiny cracks occurring in the finish. He also told me that every French polished guitar he had examined has also had this problem. However, with this finish, you start with the 1800 micromesh and go through the 12,000 again and then re-polish with the Novus and the finish will be permanent and will not craze again. Les does not suggest your customer start taking the micromesh sandpaper to their instruments unless they have wood working experience. Often, he will give some of the Novus polish to his customer so they can maintain an acceptable finish using only the polish. While at first this looks like a drawback, my experience has been that even nitrocellulose lacquered guitars craze. But with Les’s method, the finish does not have to be reapplied. In fact, Les told me that no shellac is added on this refinishing process. If you do, it will melt all the shellac layers below and create other problems.

As you can see, this is not a short and sweet finishing process. That’s not what Les was looking for. It is a different way of getting an attractive finish that would offer some protection for the instrument and not adversely affect the sound.

After reading through that again I'm not sure about this process either. I want something that looks good but I don't want to spend a month achieving it.

...what is meant by "soft" side...? thin????? just wondering. finishing is my nightmare

I think the reason people use finishes that take a long time to apply is that there aren't any that are quick 'n' good.

If I were you I would pad on a few coats of shellac to seal the guitar and protect it a little. Then I'd play it. It will look fine, though not as nice as a guitar with a deep, shiny finish. After you've built another guitar and have it to play, you can come back to your lightly shellacked guitar, fine sand it a little bit, and then either French polish it or use one of the many finishes compatible with shellac undercoats such as Tru-Oil, other varnishes, and several types of lacquer.

_________________
Tim Allen
"Never hurry, never rest."

What's good? I did one yesterday that consisted of 3 coats of Danish Oil and 3 coats of wax, all in one day (I have a UV cabinet). No pore fill. It's a perfectly nice finish. Once you get over the idea that all Guitars should look like they have been covered in a candy coating a lot more becomes possible.
Fingerstyle I don't recognise that method at all. It's totally alien to the method that I use. Putting on heavy coats of Shellac with a brush and pushing it around is the exact opposite to the usual method of spirit varnishing - which is thin coats applied very quickly, hardly any brushing out. You lay a 'band' on and then another next to it slightly overlapping the first 'band'. You probably have another one or two chances (at most) to brush those areas again. Leave it much more than say 20 seconds and the finish is already flashing off and you will only succeed in dragging the finish into something that looks like a furrowed field. That kind of approach might work but you have an awful lot of rubbing down to do. In other words you are removing 80%+ of what you have just put on. That has always seemed a very odd way of going about things. If you are trying to fill pores with it then the method makes a bit more sense.
With brush Spirit varnishing you have to be very methodical. It's better to think in terms of replicating a spray gun method - quick, confident and as though the applicator isn't touching the surface. It might take me 30 seconds to coat the Back of a Guitar. I pretty certain it's not longer than that and may even be quite a bit less. You are looking to lay down as even a surface as possible. That's the ideal, although it doesn't matter too much if you have a few missed areas and shallow overlaps. 15+ coats eventually evens everything out. Do not be tempted to correct any faults. If you notice a fault at the top of the Back whilst you are finishing off at the bottom of it - FORGET IT!!! Leave it to dry and either correct with the next coat or rub down. However, the more missed areas and overlaps you create the more you will need to rub down, removing the material you have just put on. In other words you are creating more work. Don't think this stuff is easier than French Polishing. Quicker but not easier, although it's quite possible to turn it into a marathon if you aren't so good with a brush.
I use 15+ coats, all put on in no more than 3 days - long days. You need to get all the coats on within a fairly short time scale because each coat has to bite into the previous one. Too dry, no 'bite' and you are in danger of creating a surface that's not homogeneous. The spike oil helps with that, although it does delay the drying and hardening of the final film. No free lunch I'm afraid. You also have to be mindful of the edges when using a brush. That's where you get an ugly build up of polish. I use a slightly moistened alcohol soaked rag to quickly wipe the corner of the adjacent surface just after a brushed coat.
I've stopped using the refined grades of Shellac because I think that Button lac offers better long term protection. I leave the wax in because it may resist human sweat better. I don't know that for certain but I do know that refined, dewaxed shellac has proved susceptible. I'd be surprised if Button lac proved to be any worse.

Fingerstyle don't rush a finish man, just don't do it. Step back... take a breath... relax. You will get it done.

FWIW I brush on a few coats then sand back before French Polishing and it's a time saver. Google Milburn French Polish for the best tutorial on the net. You can get good results the first time you FP. I avoided FP for years, lots of years, because of the horror stories. Now it's the only finish I apply unless requested otherwise. IT's methodical but it's not difficult.

Yep what jfmckenna said. Also consider the O'Brien french polish DVD. It is very informative and Robbie really explains the process in detail and clarity. Sounds like you are way complicating things. You can do a French polish within a matter of days (not a month), have a superb thin finish, no harmful chemicals, no levelling, no sanding, and very little cure time (day or two). Oh, and you can start and stop the process at your leisure. It's not as hard as it may seem.

Thanks for all the input, I'm still reading up trying to make a decision. I see why people dread the finishing process.

Another solution , if you already have a compressor would be to buy a cheap jamb gun ($15?) and spray outdoors as the weather permits.

If you want a quick and dirty job, I can't imagine a faster protective finish than straight FP Shellac. Not a high gloss detailed "perfect" job, but in two days of rubbing in a warm dry room you can be done applying shellac. You will have to let it hang a few days after, to harden.
I use Kusmi Seedlac. I decant "most" of the wax out, I think it improves clarity on the wood.
I sped up my method from something I got from the Les Stansell video, and that was to pad on as much thin shellac as I could on the initial sealer coat.
As far as dreading the finishing process, there is nothing I more enjoy than French Polishing. It has taken me years to refine my process and I try to get better on every job. I think I could hire out to some fine production shop and do nothing but FP all day, every day.
If you dread finishing, maybe you should send it out.

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I don't dread the finishing so much as I hate trying to decide on which finish method to use. I like some versions of FP because while I am all about owning as many home depot spray guns with the largest capacity/spray rate possible I also love trees that don't make amazing guitars and dislike corporate chemical companies. I guess that makes me a Home Depot spray gun happy toting tree hugger. In any event I don't like using harsh chemicals.

If 190 proof Everclear were legal in Alaska (I can't believe it isn't) I'd love the idea of a shellac (which is edible) and alcohol (drinkable) finish that I could take a swig of without a trip to the hospital. That is something that I am hoping to have in the future. However, Everclear is not legal here so I have to use denatured alcohol- benzine and all and I don't like touching it. Tru-oil is the other option which I also favor to other methods. But yes time is a factor as I am in the running for the new builder competition! I probably won't finish on time...

In that case I don't know why you don't just brush the stuff on. It takes practice, just like any other finish. Like FP, it's easy to start again because it's unlikely that you will have to remove everything to base wood.
Tru Oil is fine if you are very careful with handling the instrument. I have samples that go back over 12 years and it never really gets that hard. If you are prepared to renew or maintain it every so often, it should be OK.

Michael I am interested in what you are using for your UV cabinet.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

I use the UV box for curing natural Oil varnishes (when I use that type) but mainly for tanning the wood, especially Maple.
The box itself is just a faced chipboard, small single wardrobe. Foil lined. 2 x 30 W BL 350 lights. Baffled air vents. I had the Police show up a few months ago. When they 'found it' they became mighty interested in it. Even threatened to take it away as evidence! Fortunately it had a Guitar inside. Music solves everything, almost everything.
I also have a baby bottle warmer inside, going full blast otherwise the humidity can get shockingly low. Low enough to distort plates.
Handy thing to have but you have to be careful of the heat, humidity and safety aspects. . . and the cops.

How did the cops find it if it's in your garage? Thermo scans and assumed you were growing drugs? I'd have made them get a warrant.