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Can anyone speak to the smell of either the regular version or the catalyzed version.

I bought a fast-building Shellac formulation from an Australian company thru LMII and the smell made me sick, so I don't want to go down that road again.

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https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008907949110

I've used the post-cat. It's a pretty offensive smell until it dries.


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I use the regular royal lac and I think I only notice the smell of the denatured alcohol in it, but I don't have a real sensitive sniffer due to a lifetime of allergies,
Mike

The Royal-lac does apparently smell to some people. My wife never complained when I FP'ed with regular shellac while watching movies in the living room. Now she complains about the Royal-lac being used in the basementm with doors closed.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Does anyone have a schedule for spraying the post Catalyzed version of Royal-Lac I was going to give it a go. I guess my main questions would be thickness of a wet coat and number of coats.

Thanks
John

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

John, I have sprayed the original version but not post-cat. I would recommend you contact Vijay and Shellac Finishes and ask him. He has always been very helpful when I have a question.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I bought some to test. I'm not home now but I think the can says 'brush: no more than three coats at least 2 hours apart, per eight hours, dry overnight before recoating sand with 400 if needed and then repeat as needed'. For spray it is the same except 4 coats per day. Since it is brushable I assume a sprayed wet coat is fine.

And yes, email Vijay. He is very helpful

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Has anyone brushed it on a guitar yet and if so what was the process and the results?
Chuck

Haven't done a guitar with it but I did use a brush on the test panel. It went on fine. There is an upcoming article by two Luther's on GAL. That should explain alot.

My only concern at this point is pore fill. The manufacture says what ever is used should be sanded back to bare wood. Not sure that will work for me so I did the test panel using various pore fill.

Some people have had a problem with it crazing 6 months or so after it is all buffed out and beautiful. My quess is it may have something to do with the pore fill

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Was that with the new product? I experienced the crazing with the original RL on three instruments. Two were pore filled with an oil-based filler and sanded ba k to bare wood. One was not pore filled as it bad a maple body ans neck. Vijay took the time to help me figure out what happen and in my case it was application rate; I sprayed the product and put on too many coats in too short a time.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I'm doing the test panel with the new post-cat stuff. The reports of crazing I'm referring to are also with the post-cat. How long before the crazing showed up with the RL?

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

With the regular RL the crazing showed up in about two months..

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

I like the results I am getting with the post-cat Royal-lac. I thought it sprayed on well. I had no trouble leveling it one day after spraying. As I was learning the gun I probably took off most that I sprayed the first day, but I Sprayed five coats the second day, leveled and sprayed three more the third day. I did not dilute as I was spraying pretty clean coats after the first day. I used aquaclear pore fill sanded back to wood and a 2 pound cut of shellac to seal. I was traveling so I was not able to wet sand and buff for 6 days. I used 600, 1000 and 2000 CAMI to wet sand and used my buffer with medium, fine and very fine Menzerna buffing compound. I love the color through the finish and feel a relief to move away from water based lacquers.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

That looks great John. In a week or two I should have final results on one that I'm french polishing with the standard Royal Lac - so far it's been a super easy process. Hope mine looks as good as yours does.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"