Getting Shellac into solution quicker

[jprconsulting]

I am sure the "old timers" know this, but I use a old coffee grinder to grind my shellac flakes into a finer consistency.  It goes into solution much faster.  It works on all forms, even seed lac, but that is not as critical.

For blond shellac it really speeds up the process.

I used a grinder that had been replaced by an older model.  I took it completely apart to remove any coffee (not sure how critical that was).

It has various settings and you can select the size of the grind.

one thing I did discover the hard way, if you run the grinder too long with out a break and/or have the grind too fine, the shellac will heat up, and yes it will form a new larger "clump" of shellac flakes.  Oh well, just take care, stop periodically, and do not make the grind too fine.

Hope this helps someone, I know I wish I knew this some years ago, especially when I am in a hurry to get to finishing.

Ken

 

[rococojo]

hello ken, That is sound advise,Thank you.
its such a good idea, you should patent it?
your ending sentence:I know I wish I knew this some years ago,especially when I am in a hurry to get to finishing.
me too? Thank's again.

 

[Kent A. Ryan]

Ken,

I agree, sounds like a great idea.  Do you suppose that a non - electric coffee grinding mecahnism with the addition of "elbow grease" would/could do the job?  I ask because these hand powered grinding mechanisms are available very reasonably from places like Penn State Industries and quite possibly would be a lot easier to locate than an old electric one.

As an alternative, I guess you could swipe the coffee grinder from the kitchen, use it quickly and then when caught,  beg for forgiveness!

Kent 

 

[dkeller_nc]

Kent -

Coffee grinders are among almost all manufactured items that are now made by slave labor in asia.  You can a brand new one for less than $20 (and sometimes less than $10).

Ken - There's a couple of more tricks that will greatly decrease the dissolution time for shellac:

1.  Rapidly stir the alcohol and only add a little of the shellac at a time, which avoids forming a goopy layer of soft shellac on the bottom of the container that takes 24 hours to dissolve.  If you have access to a second-hand scientific supply store (many universities have these), pick up a magnetic stir plate and a couple of teflon-coated magnetic stir bars.  Using this method and a coffee grinder, I can get shellac ready to use in about 10 minutes.

2.  Heat the solution in warm tap water.  Shellac has an approximately 10 times faster dissolution rate at 120F than 70F.  Disclaimer: Obviously, alcohol evaporates at a much lower temperature than water, and so has a higher vapor pressure.  Heating a closed container in this manner will likely cause it to rupture (sometimes violently).

 

[Tom M]

I've been using this technique for a couple years now after seeing Don Williams do it at a workshop.  Because the shellac ends up being almost a powder, you can't use the "cover the flakes with shellac method". You have to fill the alcohol to several times higher than the powder at the bottom of the jar.

The first couple times I used the grinder, I thought the shellec was bad because it wouldn't fully disolve.  Then I started adding alcohol until it basically became saturated.  I would guess you would need about 6 or 7 times the alcohol volume compared to the dry powdered shellac volume.