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Building Tips and technical articles. => Paint and finishing => Topic started by: kevin king on June 16, 2020, 11:26:52 AM
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For those that can't afford to buy gallons of Brodak or Randolph thinner, and like me still use the cheap stuff, this might help you with blushing. I have been using cheap hardware Store Lacquer thinner to reduce all my Butyrate dope for over 20 years. It works in both Sig and Brodak color & clear Dope. Lately it's been hot here and I had problems with the Dope drying to fast. I am not an expert but do know this: It turns out that cheap lacquer thinners main ingredient is acetone. I found a list of solvents used in Lacquer thinner and their evaporation rates. Acetone is on the top of the list. It has the fastest evaporation rate. So I added 10% MEK, which has a slower evaporation rate to my mix and recorded the result. As you can see in the video the clear turned white with moisture as expected, but the MEK slowed the dry time down enough to let 98% of the moisture out in about 30 minutes. The next day I scuff sanded the clear with 1000 grit and it powdered right off. I chose MEK because it's still readily available. And still has a fast drying time. I will include the list or the link below. Interesting stuff. Give me some time to upload and post this. Ok, here's the video. Next I will try to upload the list. https://youtu.be/4RvH_UEu8Po Link to article and chart with lacquer ingredients and dry time: https://thefinishingstore.com/blogs/news/127175747-understanding-solvents-part-iii-laquer-thinner
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I'll say what I always say. You pays your money and takes your chances. You should use the manufacturer's recommendations . Lacquer is tough enough to get right and it's sensitive to conditions. If you decide to use something else, you are taking a chance. But hey, if it works for you....
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I’ve been using the Home Depot thinner with good success. It’s a very hot thinner and I have started having issues with blushing when the temperature has come up above 90, while using retarder. Most paintwork with that thinner I think is going to be relegated to the fall and winter time when it’s colder out. Dracula was painted with it and I had the best adhesion of any airplane I’ve ever painted
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Matt,
As always, use what you like, of course. But if you use stuff that's not recommended by the manufacturer, your results are left to chance. Where I live, the humidity tends to run very high and the temps are all over the place. I'm progressively thinking about changing to polyspan and all urethane finishes for that reason. Lacquer is very difficult to work with in this environment so I tend to stick with manufacturer's recommendations.