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Ok, so I'm trying to make shellac. I have high quality Shepard flakes from shellac.net. I have 99% isopropyl alcohol. I have added my flakes to my alcohol, shaking every ten minutes, leaving overnight. This gave me a lump of toffee like substance sitting at the bottom of a jar of alcohol. Is there something I'm not doing right?

Stir it, and poke at it with a stick, it'll dissolve.

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Old growth, shmold growth!

All the flakes are fairly well crushed. On my second attempt I put maybe a sugar cubes worth of crushed flake into 4 oz of alcohol. Not enough to even cover the bottom of the jar, and after sitting overnight it is still perfectly formed flakes. Perhaps I'll try warming it tonight and see what happens. I assume when they say 4 oz flake into 16 oz alcohol, they mean volume, not weight? As in a shot glass is a good measuring cup?

Don't use isopropyl. Denatured ethanol works well.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

Yeah, I was thinking isopropyl might be your prob.

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Fiye!
I guess I'll have to make a trip to Lee Valley for their shellac mixer.
Ah well.

I make a bath of hot tap water to warm the Ethanol/shellac flake mix. I also use an old whizzer style coffee grinder to grind the shellac flakes to a powder and add about 1/4 at a time until disolved. To quote K C: "Shake Shake Shake". Fresh Everclear or Diesel work great if you can find them.

Just a heads up. The Lee Valley shellac thinner is extremely pungent. I couldn't take it.

Steve

Well, it seems to have the highest ethanol content of options in Canada. If it works it'll have to do.

You can use methanol as a shellac solvent, but use respiratory protection and gloves.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

when i saw the title of the post i thought you were harvesting your own stuff
like the guys on this video..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQcQ0yuekZ0

shows the whole process of shellac harvest and processing, i was amazed when i saw it. didnt imagine it like that.

I use everclear

I use everclear

those sheets are pretty amazing. thanks for the link.

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"Preoccupation with an effect gives it power and enhances the error"
from "Your Owner's Manual" by Burt Hotchkiss.

Great video, thanks!

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I just use methyl hydrate from Home Hardware ... cheaper & has always worked fine for me. (Typically, super blonde does take longer than ,say, orange, which is very quick)

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Dave
Milton, ON

The current "American Lutherie" has an interesting article on alcohols used for French polishing. Some are more bad than others, but all are considered hazardous material, including Everclear. I use grain alcohol too, but the different brands of denatured alcohol, have very different additives, some of which are bad stuff.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

That's a very cool video, Bruno. Thanks for sharing that.

Waddy, is that article available online ? Would you be willing to post a quick list from the least bad to the worse.
Thanks,
Link

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Cut to size.....Beat to fit.....Paint to match.

I guess methyl hydrate wins due to availability. Thank goodness my gubment protects me from relatively benign ethanol.

Me too

Ditto on the warm bath idea. Put the jar in a bath of hot tap water and it will really speed things up.
I don't know about the isopropyl effect. I always use denatured alcohol from the paint store.

FWIW, I was able to make the iso work. I just had to add the flakes a little but at a time, so a batch took three days to make.

Pure IPA (2-Proponol) works fine for dissolving Shellac. It is what I used to use.

When I mix shellac I use a stirrer plate to help dissolve things faster.

I quit using IPA because while it sprays fine, it doesn't not french polish well. The alcohol evaporates off too fast, but the surface stays gummy for a long time. Makes it so you have to use a fairly wet pad to get the right trail, but then also lots of oil to keep the wet pad from sticking.

Ethanol or DeNatured Alchohol is much easier to work with as you get good trails with a much drier pad.

DNA is a mix of stuff (EtOH, MeOH, Methyl Hydrate) that is not always the same. Use appropriate safety gear and test each mix to get a feel for how it works.

-jd

Mmmmm, IPA. I don't drink it until after work, though.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.