<html> At 02:19 AM 12/20/2002 -0500, you wrote:<br> <blockquote type=cite cite><font size=2>Dale, do you spray the shellac and do you use shellac retarder?</font><br> <blockquote type=cite cite>  <font size=2>Carl Meyer  Assoc. PTG</font><br> <font size=2><br>    Carl -Yes I spray it and No I don't use retarder soTell me what you know about this Please!</font></blockquote><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>    Dale</font></blockquote><br> The alcohol has a high evaporation rate and will leave the finish with 'orange peel'.<br> Especially is your are using an HVLP, the heated air flow accelerates the evaporation.<br> <br> However, if a retarder is used, flow-out is improved and the surface tension has a chance<br> to smooth out thus reducing the orange peel effect.<br> <br> I procure my shellac flakes from homestead.com. The last time I ordered, I acquired the retarder<br> but have not had the opportunity to spray shellac.  The one time I did spray shellac years ago<br> on a portion of a plate; I got a real grainy finish. So now I have the retarder for my next touchup job.<br> <br> <div>Regards,</div> <br> <div>Jon Page,   piano technician</div> <div>Harwich Port, Cape Cod, Mass.</div> <div><a href="mailto:jonpage@attbi.com" EUDORA=AUTOURL>mailto:jonpage@attbi.com</a></div> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ </html>