Will Shellac Dry in Cold Temperature?

Re: Will Shellac Dry in Cold Temperature?

JL

>Ya'll like to live dangerously don't you. My "standard rule" for other finishes (not shellac), is that if it's cold enough to see your breath, it's too cold to apply finish. (Not below 40-45 in other words.) Life is too short to have to strip a finish.

The evaporation of the carrier solvent is drastically less when it's that cold, so the potential for bad things happening is a lot greater.

Re: Will Shellac Dry in Cold Temperature?

Kelly Anderson

>The Zinsser site says 40*. I have never done it but that is what it says.

Can't speak for Shellac

Lee Schierer - McKean, PA

>I've never tried shellac at cold temps, but I routinely apply Deft Clear Wood Finsish in temps in the 20's. Any colder than that and your hands get too cold too fast. I contacted the folks at Deft a number of years ago and they said that the lacquer based finsih would cure slower, but will fully cure. It depends upon evaporation of the solvent only, not a chemical reaction. Normal cure for recoating is about an hour. In cold temps I have to wait 24 hours for a hard cure. It becomes dust free in about an hour.

The same is probably true for shellac since it cures by evaporation of the alcohol. I would suggest an experiment and see what happens to a piece of scrap.

Lee

Re: Will Shellac Dry in Cold Temperature?

Steve Schoene

>The amount of shellac you will apply on a bookcase won't create enough harmful fumes to have much effect. There may be a small percentage of denaturing alcohols, but 90%--95% of the solvent is ethyl alcohol. In any reasonable size shop you're not going to get much more than you would get setting in the neighhorhood watering hole. So put on a coat or two, air the shop for a short time, and then let it heat up again.

Re: Will Shellac Dry in Cold Temperature?

Paul Leuba

>Thank you, everyone for the feedback. I am going to run a test tommorrow with a small board and see how it sets up using the process of applying the finish and then airing out the shop for a while before heating it back up again.

Paul in Hunt Valley, MD

Yes---

Johanna

>My workshop is generally around 40 degrees during the winter. Shellac dries just fine -- takes a little bit longer, though. Workshop is about 650 square feet, so I don't bother with special ventilation.

Re: Will Shellac Dry in Cold Temperature?

Larry Clinton At Frankfort (Central)., Indiana

>Don't know what the lower limit for the alcohol to evaporate is - but I have done a lot of shellac coating with my shop completely sealed up and air conditioned. I do have a fairly large shop (30 X 30 / 10' ceiling and a 10 X 30 / 8' ceiling upstairs. My son and I are making all the oak woodwork for his house remodel. We have coated up to 120 bf or so with 2 or 3 coats of 1# cut of shellac in a day with no problems. The solvent for the shellac is denatured alcohol. About 90% of that is ethyl (drinking alcohol, remainder being a poison / dis-tasteful additive, to prevent drinking the mixture - to get the government drinking alcohol taxes.

I won't recommend you do this due to liability, but as an engineer for about 40 years I personally don't feel it is a danger to me or my son and won't hesitate to do it again/

Thanks Everyone

Paul Leuba

>I did a test on a piece of scrap today at 23 degrees F. and the shellac dried just fine in about an hour or so. As indicated in several of the posts, the fumes were not that bad either, so its go for shellacing the bookcase tommorrow.

Thanks!

Paul in Hunt Valley, MD