Finish Smell

[Derekkest]

I finished a piece of intarsia with some brush on laquor. Comes out very nice, downside is man does it smell.

Anything I can do to get rid of the odor or just time itself will get rid of it? Id like to give this piece away tomorrow but I dunno with the smell.

[AceHoleInOne]

Your using solvent lacquer?

If so, a substantial amount of gassing-off will occur in the first few days, most consider that it takes about 30 days to be fully cured. This will depend on the overall thickness of the coat(s) .

-Ace-

[Derekkest]

30 days eh....Yuck. Never used laquor before, always used poly but for this one I wanted to try it.

[AceHoleInOne]

I bet in 14 days, you will notice a big difference......

-Ace-

30 days eh....Yuck. Never used laquor before, always used poly but for this one I wanted to try it.

[Derekkest]

Is there a differance with the time the smell lasts if I sprayed it on? I have a compressor, just never really gave any thought to a spray gun as of yet.

Obviously the gun will put thinner coats on then a brush. But then again Id have to do it outside and with the wind and such I would figure id get a lot of dust.

[AceHoleInOne]

Yes spray equipment will apply thinner coats. However, brushing lacquer has retarders added allowing it to cure slower, making it more brush-able and more open time before tacking up. So it stands to reason, if brushing lacquer has a retarder added, the finish will take longer to gas off and cure, versus say, a hotter lacquer thinner.

-Ace-

[Derekkest]

That makes absolute sense. Maybe il hold off on a sprayer until I get bigger projects where brushing just wont cut it.