pouring lacquer

[JasonF]

I would like to know if this sounds like a reasonable approach. I'm refinishing a kitchen table. It's perhaps an antique and appeared to have lacquer on it previously, so I decided to do a lacquer finish. Since it could be an antique, I didn't want to sand or otherwise change the existing character, so I just sprayed on lacquer with a little extra thinner and then sprayed some with lacquer and retarder. I'm pretty happy with the resulting finish on the legs and sides of the table. For the top, I'd like to fill in a few joints (crumbs are always falling in) and achieve a slightly thicker finish. So, I decided to pour on the lacquer. I did a little pouring into the joints, letting it spill out over onto the table surface, but not run off the top. It appears to have dried hard and I'm ready to pour some more into the joints and over the whole top. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find anyone who's done this same approach. Am I going to run into major problems? Is the whole top going to crack up at some point? It seems like most people that have tried to produce a thicker clear finish have used Envirotex or a marine epoxy. I didn't want to do that because I want to be able to just spray with lacquer thinner and get back to the wood if something doesn't work out. Thoughts?

[dadiOH]

It is going to take a LOT of pouring to fill anything up, not a lot of solids in lacquer. It will take a long time to thoroughly dry too...days and days. However, it will work. I sometimes do the same thing and - once it is dry (days and days) - use a razor blade to cut flat then spray all.

[B A R R Y]

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[nailshooter41]

Probably.

The thicker it gets, the more it will shrink. Since today's lacquers are really pretty precision oriented, they are really made to be pore or crack fillers.

It will shrink for at least a month. And if you pour additional stuff on top after more than a few days, you will retard the outgassing of the original coat(s) making your layers dry (yes, even though they resolvate) at different speeds. And if you pour it on, think about what you will do to solve your problems if you trap any moisture underneath. This is a recipe for failure.

You might get away with it if you follow dadiOH's lead on this, but I wouldn't do it with a piece I liked. Sounds like the horses have already left the gate on this project, though.

Good luck!

Robert

[Artemus]

I recently completed a similar thing on a table top using poly. I wanted to fill the pores in red oak w/o having it end up looking like formica. It turned out quite well and after a month there is no sign of cracking in the finish.

After sealing and coloring with shellac I brushed on a thin coat of poly. Next, using a bathroom squeegee, I removed as much of the surface poly as I could. I found that swipes diagonal to the grain worked best, otherwise the squeegee pulled poly out of the pores too much. After drying, a light sanding with stearated 220 and a good vacuuming and it was ready for the next application. 3 coats filled the pores to my satisfaction.

This technique may or may not work with lacquer depending on how fast it is drying and how fast you are with the squeegee. I had no problem with the poly drying too fast at 65°F ambient, but I'm not so sure if it will work at 85°F.

Hope this helps. Art