Replies

1. 
   MarkH | Apr 08, 2006 08:35pm | #1

   Sounds pretty challenging.  The stuff dries like 10 times faster than paint.

2. 
   philarenewal | Apr 08, 2006 09:11pm | #2

   As the shellac quickly dries, little fuzzy nap from the roller will stick to whatever you're applying it to and it will look like crap.  Don't ask me how I know that.

    

    

   "Let's get crack-a-lackin"  --- Adam Carolla

3. 
   plumbsquare | Apr 08, 2006 09:19pm | #3

   Sure, I once applied shellac using a roller and it worked just fine. It was on a huge oak backbar we'd built for a Spokane pub. We used a roller on the large open panel sections - applied it with the roller then brushed it out.

   (I pointed out to the boss that we were coating a bar with a product that was soluble in alcohol, but he didn't make the connnection and insisted it was what he wanted. Oh well.)

   Anyway, it worked fine. Lots of fumes. Wear a respirator.

   Tim

4. 
   BillBrennen | Apr 08, 2006 09:48pm | #4

   You will have better success rolling shellac if you dissolve the flakes in a slower-evaporating alcohol. Behlen's sells a product called "Behkohl" (sp?) that contains isobutanol, which dries much slower than the ethanol commonly used. The solvent has to stay in the film long enough for the roller/brush marks to level out before it tacks up.

   Ditto the previous poster on wearing a good respirator.

   Bill

5. 
   Danno | Apr 08, 2006 11:28pm | #5

   You could try "padding" it (also known as "French polishing") add a few drops of boiled linseed oil to the pad (old T-shirt wrapped  around something absorbant and pulled tight so there are no wrinkles) which you dip into the shellac and rub on the suface in circles or "figure 8's". The oil's supposed to help keep it from sticking. Bekhol, like someone else said, is a good solvent because it evaporates slower.

   Edit: What about spraying it?--I would think that would give the best (smoothest) results.

   
   

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   Edited 4/8/2006 8:03 pm ET by Danno