True Water-white Solvent Sealer?

Re: True Water-white Solvent Sealer?

kneale brownson

I've used a water-based (water's the solvent poly

Re: True Water-white Solvent Sealer?

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

"Vinyl" sealer that goes under conversion varnish. You need to spray it.

CAB lacquer can be diluted and used as a sealer. Again, spray.

Acrylic water based finish will stay clear.

Checked for CAB

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

with Sher-Will store: There's not a single can of their CAB lacquer in the State of NJ, and they can't even order it. I suspect with 80% VOC it's not legal here.

You have a source for it, Bill?

Non-Solvents

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

I try to avoid putting water-based on raw wood as it tends to pucker the grain and reduces the clarity of the film and reflectivity of the wood surface, hence my use of dewaxed shellac as a sealer.

My main finish coat is General's Gloss Enduro, a waterborne water-white finish.

Re: Checked for CAB

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

You have a source for it, Bill?

They make it in the lab for me.

Re: True Water-white Solvent Sealer?

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Vinyl sealer is available in TN any place that sells conversion varnish. Our local Sherwin Williams did sell CAB, probably still does.

Re: Checked for CAB

Clint Searl

I used to get my S-W CAB from their commercial warehouse near the ABE airport. They would pour off a gallon from a storage barrel. Don't know if they are still there. My favorite finish.

Cost?

Re: True Water-white Solvent Sealer?

Paul Leuba

Is CAB an acronym? If so, what does it stand for?

Paul in Hunt Valley, MD

CAB

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

Cellulose Acetate Butyrate

Re: Cost?

Clint Searl

<$40/gal...>6 years ago

Re: CAB

Barry Irby

I buy CAB at Sherwin Williams in Virginia regularly. I buy a case of medium rubbed effect as needed and recently bought a gallon of dull rubbed but had to drive to a store in Tappahannock (and Hour) to get it. I buy it on a friends professional account and I believe I pay $38 a gallon which is half of retail. I like it a lot.

Re: CAB

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

Looking at the SDS it seems to be pretty toxic and should only be used outside or in a very well vented booth with full PPE. May be a bit more than I want to go for, especially at $80 a gallon.

Re: CAB

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

The concern is flammability.

Bill . . .Thinning?

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

OK Bill,

I scored a gallon out of NJ. Since you stated it can be thinned (lacquer thinner, of course) what percentages have you used? 10? 20? 30? %? Is there a limit above which you're screwing too much with the chemistry?

TIA

Re: Bill . . .Thinning?

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Think of it as shellac. You can thin it as much as you want. It is just a polymer dissolved in solvent. There is no chemistry to have the opportunity to change.

I presume you know about spraying lacquer. CAB is just a different kind of cellulose lacquer - nitrocellulose for lacquer and cellulose ester for CAB lacquer.

Lacquer

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

Have sprayed my share of N-C as well as wb's

Thanks. Their paperwork only mentions 10% addition for airless sprayers. Not my rig.

It is a lacquer

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

invented by Eastman Chemical Company in the 1970's to be a "water white" lacquer. Treat it just like the lacquer you are used to.

The polymer it is formulated from is cellulose acetate butyrate. It is the same stuff that Stanley screw driver handles were made from before they got cheap. Tough as nails and colorless. But very expensive to make compared to nitrocellulose lacquer which is just dissolved gun powder and some plasticizer.

Re: It is a lacquer

Barry Irby

I have been using SW's CAB for years. I get a painter friend who has a commercial account to let me buy it on his account and I get it for $38 a gallon. I scored some ML Campbell "standard lacquer thinner" at a trucking auction. (40 gallons at less than $5 each, sold half for enough to pay for all of it.) I thin the CAB about 20% and it sprays well in my 3M Accuspray Gun. I think you can thin it as much or as little as you like. It also seems to not be sensitive to temperature. Cooler gives it more time to lay down. I can spray two or even three coats in an hour.

(You may hear someday I died in a fiery explosion. I set up a cheap box fan with a furnace filter in front of it, open the overhead door on my garage shop and blow it out the door. At the same time I have two ambient air cleaners running and a barn heater. Sometimes I add in my four inch hose on the DC.)

Straight acetone at any level

why this recommendation could be flawed

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Acetone is the most volatile component ever put in a lacquer thinner. When use as the only diluent its volatility could enhance blushing, create a greater flammability hazard, and could promote orange peel. When I dilute lacquer I am always trying to slow an evaporation rate, not enhance it. Other's result may differ.

That said adding 10% won't change much except % solids.

I used

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

30% LT; worked perfectly. First coat as sanding sealer, second coat will be for shine, then topcoat will be with Enduro gloss. First application pulled a bit of gentle color out of the wood without ambering.

Thanks again for the information.