Repairing Black Ash veneer

[BarakaBloke]

I've put 3 coats on and the result is almost identical to the original!


Thanks for the brilliant advice!



It's does have a slightly glossier finish than the original but I figure
I can resolve this with a wax polish on all sides.

I'm impressed with how easy it was to get a good finish - much
easier than with the acrylic car spray paints.

How long does it take to dry? I've managed to scuff it after two
days, but that might just be bad luck. Or maybe the original coating
was the 'pre cat' (catalysed?) stuff I keep reading about which is
apparently harder wearing?

To make up the minimum order price I also ordered a can of Behlen
'Blush Eraser' (B101-0071) guessing it might be the pure solvent
used in the paint sprays. Is this so? I've found it handy to clean the
nozzle after each coat, but I was wondering about trying it on one
of the other scratched speaker surfaces in the hope it might
redissolve the lacquer so it dries to a fresh finish?


BB

 

[R-Carpenter]

Blush is the effect produced by drying (rapid evaporating of the solvents) and cooling of the lacquer in the humid weather. It develops milky appearance. To combat this rather unpleasant thing, retarter was developed. It’s a solvent that’s added to the lacquer before spray application and the whole purpose of it is to slow down drying of the finish and there for making this temperature drop on the surface much less dramatic. It’s only necessary to use in the humid conditions. There’s usually a manufacturer stated limit of 10% after which lacquer tend to dry for very long time.
“Blush Eraser” is an aerosol version of the commercial product. It helps a flow out a bit but not necessary at all if it’s not humid. Just as a comitial retarter, it contains slow solvent Butyl nitrocellulose and if overdone will make drying and curing looooong.
I wouldn’t use it to redissolve the scratched surface (process is called re amalgamation), not that I haven’t tried myself but it hardly works.
Wax and steel wool will even out the sheen (or you just didn’t shake the can enough before spraying)
Thin crosshatched coat should be dry to touch within an hour and ready to sand in 2.
Thick coats may stay soggy and soft for a couple of days. More thin coats are better.

 

[BarakaBloke]

Here's a shot showing the difference between the original finish (right)
and the the new satin finish (left). This is after cleaning any polish from
the original finish which I think made it look glossier than it should
have in the original photo which I posted (above).

I'm wondering if in fact I should have used matt black? The original
finish isn't so matt as what I normally call matt, but then the satin
spray is more glossy than I would normally consider satin to be, so
maybe this is just another difference between nitrocellulose and the
acrylic paints I'm used to.

BB