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Tried using a heat gun to speed up a shellac finish and the results were... interesting.
I was finishing a small oak table last week and was in a real hurry. I had put on a coat of dewaxed shellac and got the bright idea to use my heat gun on low to make it dry faster. I held it about a foot away and moved it slowly. For about 30 seconds, it looked GREAT, super shiny. Then the whole surface just went full orange peel, like I'd sprayed it with texture paint. It was wild. I had to sand the whole mess back down to bare wood, which took me two extra hours. I learned that shellac sets from the inside out, and rushing it with heat just cooks the top layer into a wrinkled mess. Has anyone else had a finish go totally sideways from trying to rush the dry time?
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grant_dixon5mo ago
Yeah, that orange peel thing is exactly what happened to me. I found that just using a fan on low across the room works way better... it moves the air without cooking the finish. Letting each coat sit for a full hour before even thinking about the next one made a huge difference.
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lucasw844mo ago
Is it really that big of a deal? I mean, sure, you messed up a coat of shellac, but it's not like you ruined a priceless antique. Took you two extra hours to sand it down. That's annoying, but it's also part of learning. We've all done something dumb like that in the shop. I remember rushing a polyurethane coat with a space heater once and got a finish that looked like an alligator's back. It happens. I just don't see the need to turn it into some kind of tragic cautionary tale. You fixed it, you learned from it, you move on.
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